Simba's Pain
by MrToast101
Summary: Simba has always been bullied and had a hard life. All he wants in life is to find love and have friends. What happens when he runs into an unlikely lioness one day that is responsible for causing him more pain than anyone else and how a friendship blossoms from the feelings of pain and regret that will change their lives, and the lives of everyone around them forever...
1. Simba

**Simba's Pain**  
 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Hey guys, here's another story that I just randomly came up with. It's funny just how easily these things will just come to you. Anyway if you want something specific in the future just request it, and I'll see if I can make it happen. With that said I hope to see you guys again, Enjoy!**

For all his life, Simba never had any friends. Sure he was the prince, but no one ever gave him much of a chance to prove himself. He had tried to work his way into friend groups before, but every time he did, it ended up with him failing and humiliating himself.

Simba had given up on trying to make friends, and just decided to try to live his life the best he could. He often was found talking to himself or doing other weird things which made the other cubs wonder about his sanity.

He often overheard them talking about him behind his back, saying about how he had no friends and talked to himself. These comments hurt, but nothing hurt worse than having to live every day, knowing that the girl he loved, Nala, would never love him back.

Simba had tried to prove himself to her before, but it always ended with him failing and her laughing at him. It was one thing when some random cub laughed at him, but when he saw Nala laughing and making fun of him… It pained him more than anything else.

As far as bullying went, no one wanted to mess with him because if they did, they had to answer to Mufasa, the king of the pride lands. Even though he was their king, and would do anything to protect his pride, people still feared his angry and less understanding side. No one knew that Mufasa didn't care about Simba or even love him, but they still didn't want to take the risk.

Simba was currently walking away from the waterhole, where all the other cubs would hang out and play. He didn't like to go there because whenever he did, the Cubs would always talk about how clumsy and stupid he was.

Simba was deep in thought, thinking about what else he could do to get a friend or two when he striped over a root sticking out of the ground and landed face first in the dirt. Of course, knowing Simba's luck, almost everyone saw it and those who didn't, gathered around to see what happened. All the cubs started to laugh and make jokes about how clumsy he was.

"Oh umm… Hehe... My bad…" Simba said faking a laugh trying to play the whole thing off. He quickly ran off into the tall grass to avoid embarrassing himself in front of the entire pride again.

Nala was walking through the tall grass after finishing up a hunting lesson from her mother when someone ran straight into her. "Hey watch where you're going! Idiot" She snapped. She usually wasn't this hostile and was a very kind person. But right now she was mad at her mother for forcer her to do something she didn't want to do.

Simba looked over to see who he hit, and instantly felt that same pain as always when he heard Nala make fun of him. He felt like crying right then and there and could feel some tears building up in the back of his eyes, but put his feelings aside for now.

"I'm so sorry, please forgive me" Simba said almost begging for forgiveness. Nala also saw who it was and wasn't surprised to see that Simba had run into her.

"Fina, just watch where you going next time" Nala said before turning continuing on her path. She felt bad for being mean to Simba, and for the most part, she didn't know why. It was mostly because of the trend. Everyone else was mean to him, so she was too.

"Stupid!" Simba said to himself and hit himself in the head. He knew he deserved it so that's why he did it. Nala turned around unsure of what he was doing. She was surprised to see that he was using physical violence as a means of punishment on himself.

Simba just sighed and started to walk away. Nala followed closely through the whole time to try to hear what he was muttering to himself.

She could hear that he was having a conversation with himself, pretending to be two different people, telling the other one how he was a failure and a screw-up, and the other one just agreed. Nala heard this a pitied him a bit, she was a little sad to hear that he was beating himself up and the only thing he could talk about what all the negativity he was shown every day.

He walked over to a pond, with a tree just off the shore, The tree had a few larger vines running down it that he used for a hammock. There were various rocks and pieces of wood that were set up in a specific way, and writing on some larger surrounding rocks.

Simba walked over to the pond and started to talk to his reflection. Nala was leaning forward to try to better hear his conversation, when she stepped on a stick, cracking it in the process, and alerted Simba.

Simba quickly turned around to see that Nala had followed him and was currently stalking him. "Um... Hi…" Simba said unsure of what to say or do. No one had ever been in this area beside him as far as he knew, and certainly, no one ever followed around a loser like him.

"Hi…" Nala replied, embarrassed by the situation she found herself to be in. She wanted to just turn tail and run away as the whole thing had never happened but she knew that if she did, he would most likely also think she was weird.

"So what are you doing here?" Simba asked. He was a little concerned about what she would think of his 'friends'. He had a huge crush on her and didn't want her to think that he was an even bigger loser than she thought.

"Just looking around…" Nala said as she exited the brush and walked over to where Simba was. "So what are these rocks and wooden things supposed to be?" Nala asked while picking one up. The wood was carved and the stones were slightly chiseled.

"Oh, those are my friends" Simba said. "I come here during the day and talk to them. They provide me with something to do. If you want I can…" He paused seeing the look she was giving him. He immediately realized what he told her and began to scold himself for making him look so stupid in front of her.

"Your friends…" Nala asked unsure of what he meant. They were just wood and rock, not even living flesh or bone.

"Yea, I don't have any real friends, and I get lonely talking to myself all day, so I come here and pretend I have real ones, that like me and want to play a game" Simba said in a depressed tone. He decided to be honest with her because she already knew half the story and was sure to make fun of him for it.

Nala felt horrible for Simba at that intense. He had no friends and had to create imaginary ones that would like him so he didn't go crazy. "I'm sorry, so… like how do they work?" Nala asked because she was confused and just didn't know what else to say.

"Well, I can't really play with them, but I can talk to them, and pretend that they like me and stuff. It's a lot more complicated than it sounds though. I'm trying to find new things we can do together, but it's been hard lately" Simba said smiling as he picked up a wooden one.

Nala was just stunned by how honest he was like he didn't care if she made fun of him or not. "And who is that?" Nala asked pointing to the one in his hand.

"Oh... Uhhh… They don't have names… I just refer to them as guys and dudes…" Simba said a little disappointed he didn't name them yet.

Nala just looked at each one, and after seeing each one, her pity for Simba just kept growing. "So why don't you try and make some real friends?" Nala asked.

"I've tried, a lot actually, but everyone rejects me and makes fun of me. I don't know what's wrong with me, I'm still trying to find out myself, But when I do, I'm going to try to fix it so that people will like me and want to hang out with me, real people, and real friends" Simba said looking down at his reflection.

"What do you mean 'What's wrong with you' ?" Nala asked unsure of what he meant. He might act a little crazy, but that's only because he wants to be normal, and she can't see or find anything wrong with him.

"I'm not sure, But whatever it is, it makes people not want to talk to me, or be near me, or be friends with me. They also try to stay as far away from me as possible. I'm not allowed to sleep with the other cubs, I've tried before but Chumvi and his friends beat me up and now I sleep here. So do you know what's wrong with me?" Simba asked.

Nala just felt the pain in her chest build up. She felt horrible for all the times she participated in the laughing and joke making of him. "I don't know what's wrong with you, Why don't you ask your mom for help?" Nala asked… Unknowing of the answer.

Simba just frowned and a few tears left his eyes. "I don't have a mom… She passed away giving birth to me, and my dad neglects me because he blames me for her death. The only reason he doesn't completely neglect me is that of my mother wishes and do to the fact that this kingdom needs an heir. If you don't mind me asking, What is having a mom like? I've always wondered but since no one talks to me, I haven't found out" Simba said in a depressed and hurt voice.

Nala just felt a stray tear leave her eye but quickly wiped it away. She didn't know that Simba's mother had died, and his father neglected him. She couldn't imagine the pain Simba felt in his early cubs days. No one to feed him, No one to help him, No one to comfort him, No one loves him… "It's like… like having a friend… One that you could tell anything to and they would never see you as a different person" Nala said looking away as a few tears fell from her face that she didn't want Simba to see them.

"Oh… Never mind then…" Simba said in a sad tone. He didn't know what having a true friend was like, so he could never understand what having a mom was like.

"So how come I never see you around?" Nala asked. She almost never saw Simba around, especially in the den, and she only really saw him around the waterhole from time to time.

"Oh, I spend all day here. And I only go back to the den a few hours after the sun has set to eat" Simba said starting to move some of the wood and rocks around.

"A few hours past sunset?! All the food is gone by then and what is left in cold and nasty. So what are you eating? And why do you come back so late?" Nala asked shocked that he waited that long out here before coming back to the den.

"Yea, I eat the scraps and stuff. It's always cold and chewy by then, but it's better than going hungry. Sometimes there's nothing left and I come back here hungry. And I used to eat at the same time as the other cubs, but since they got bigger and less dependant on their mothers, they push me away and I'm forced to wait until they finish, and then the adults finish" Simba said.

Nala didn't even know the feeling she was feeling right now. It physically hurt, if that was even possible. "I'm sorry…" Nala thought to herself. No friends, No mother, No one that loves him, No food… How come he's always so nice to everyone. "Simba, if everyone's always mean to you, then why are you always nice to them?" Nala asked.

"Well one day I hope that they will want to be friends, so I don't want them to see me a mean. I don't know when the day will come, or if it will even come, But when it does, I hope to be ready" Simba said getting up and laying down on the vines he uses as a hammock.

"That's nice… So how exactly do you live all of your own?" Nala asked curious to how he's been successful on living so long on his own at such a young age.

"Well like I said before, These are my friends who I can talk to. The pond is for cooling off on hot days and the tree is good for shade. I can relax on the hammock and sleep on that rock. I can take a bath in an unoccupied stream not to far from here… and that's about it" Simba said, looking around making sure he didn't forget anything.

"Wow… Well… I gotta go… bye" Nala said turning around and running off to head back to pride rock… to wait for Simba later that night.

"Bye" he whispered back, Shocked that she didn't make fun of him or even tease him at all.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala was pretending to be asleep, eyes the mouth of the den, where the remains of the antelope carcass remained. Today had been tiring on all the younger lionesses do to the fact that they spent the entire day training to be hunters, so all that's left was left from dinner that night was tendons and cartilage.

She was starting to think he wasn't coming until she saw him silently making his way over to inspect it as if he was trying to avoid detection. She saw him circle around it a few times, sniffing and biting at it a few times, before sighing, knowing that there was nothing left on it, and he decided to leave.

She saw he start to leave, with his ears flat against his head and slumped over and felt bad for him. She had never gone a night hungry before and only wondered how many times Simba had done it.

She quickly got up and decided to run after him. "Psst… Simba" Nala whispered getting his attention. She saw how this hair on the back of his neck shot up and his immediately spun around looking scared. She knew that he was bullied, but by the looks of it, they traumatize him to the point where he was afraid of even being in this place… His own home… and one day his throne.

"Y-yes," Simba said a still a little scared but at the same time a little relieved that is was only Nala.

"Are you hungry?" Nala asked, knowing the answer was yes, but wanted to see what kind of person he was at heart.

"Nope" he said back, which was a blatant lie. He was starving right now but didn't want to have to get Nala involved in his own problems. He knew that she cared about her ego and that hanging out with him would most definitely hurt it.

"Simba, I know that's a lie, be honest with me, when was the last time you ate?" Nala said moving up to where she was just a few inches away from him. She knew that he was hungry and thought that it was weird that he would lie to her just to try to avoid a simple conversation.

"Two days… Since the lionesses are being taught lessons all day now, food is harder to come by" Simba said looking at the ground.

"Two days?" Nala said a little louder than intended, causing Simba to look around to make sure no one woke up. Nala couldn't believe that he hadn't eaten in two days, he was a cub and constantly growing, which made him even more hungry than some adult lions at a time. She looked closer at him and saw that he was rather well defined.

Nala was able to see each and every muscle in his chest, flexing due to the cold breeze. She even saw some muscles she didn't know existed on him. All the other male cubs where rather blush do to them being lazy, and only moving around to try to impress the ladies.

"Hey its ok, I'll be fine, just go back to bed and don't worry about me" Simba said, wanting to get out of the area before anyone, especially Chumvi woke up.

"Alright, But promise me you'll get here earlier tomorrow so you'll have something to eat. Simba was greatly surprised when Nala said this to him. It almost made it sound as if she cared about him in a way, and by what he knew, no one cared about him.

Simba just nodded and turned around, hopping into the tall grass before running back to his little pond. Nala just sighed and turned around, heading back inside of the den.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala had decided to visit Simba again today, to try to find out if there was anything she could do to make him feel better.

When she arrived she saw the Simba was looking down into the water, talking to himself.  
'So what would you do if she said yes?'

'Well I would treat her like a queen because I love her more than anything in this world, she might be mean to me, but I know there's goodness in her'

'You're crazy, a girl like her could never love a guy like you, you're unlovable and unwanted'

'you're right… but I have to try, I'll never know if I don't try'

'Yes you do, you know she'll reject you, they always reject you! When will you learn!'

Simba yelled that last part outbound simultaneously slamming his fist into a rock. Nala didn't even realize that Simba had a crush, and what made it worse, as he knew that she didn't love him back, yet he still wanted to try to tell her anyway.

"Simba?" Nala asked concerned for him. Simba just backed and turned around to see that Nala was standing behind him, his crush.

"Oh hey… You didn't see that did you…" He asked embarrassed by what he was doing.

"Yea… Anyway… Want to just socialize… talk?" Nala asked. She saw his face lite up and he smiles.

"Yes!... I mean… Yes" He said a little nervous. He always wanted someone real to talk to, and he had found a person who also happened to be his crush.

"Well I just want to know more about you" Nala said. All she knew what how terrible Simba's life was and how much he wanted a friend.

"Like?" Simba asked laughing a bit.

"Like what you do for fun" Nala added laughing a bit herself.

"Oh… I've never really had fun before…" Simba said kinda depressed. He had never had anyone to play with a younger cub, and he was almost one now. It was harder and harder to make friends as he got older do to friend groups becoming more and more open with each other, and less accepting of others.

"Oh… Well, what do you do in your free time?" Nala asked hoping to find out what he liked to do so she might be able to brighten his day.

"Oh, I like to play with my friends and pretend that the other cubs like me" He said with a smile. Simba saw the way Nala was looking at him, and his smile turned into a frown. "You think I'm crazy don't you?" Simba said with a frown. She was looking at him as if she was disgusted by him, and he knew that it was about time for the insults to come.

Nala didn't speak, but only moved up and examined him closely. She looked at him and saw that he was rather defined for a lion. A lot more muscular than the other lions his age despite not having eaten in two days. Nala gently raised her paw and glided it over the surface of his chest.

Nala could feel how bad Simba was shaking from fear and felt even more sorry for him. She couldn't even imagine how terrible his life could be, and that's only by judging the parts she knows about.

"No Simba, It's just that, Well, maybe you want a real friend, as I could maybe be your friend?" Nala said. She regretted being mean to him before, and right now didn't care what anyone else had to say about her.

"A friend? Why would you want to be my friend?" Simba asked. She was shocked that she would even consider being friends with a guy like him.

"She doesn't" Chumvi said as he jumped out from his hiding spot and pounced on Simba. He clawed his face before pushing him into the lake. Simba was caught off guard and ended up swallowing a bunch of water causing him to choke a bit.

Simba open his eyes after getting out of the pond, to see Chumvi and his friends all bumping paws, while Nala just sat, staring at him. Simba then realized that this was just a giant set up, a prank, so show just how much of a loser he could be, breaking his heart once again knowing his crush hated him.

After Chumvi left, Nala went over to help Simba. She didn't intend for Chumvi to be watching them and felt horrible that Simba was jumped and put into a lot of pain like that.

"Why?" Simba asked looking at her. The pain he felt from the scratch on his cheek was nothing compared to the pain in his heart. It wasn't only the fact that Nala set him up that hurt, but that fact that he thought he had a chance at happiness for once.

"Simba, you have to believe me, I had nothing to do with that, that was all them, I swear" Nala said examine that scratch he had on his cheek. It wasn't deep, but it was still bleeding and probably stung.

Simba just sighed and turned looking down at his reflection. Nala was standing there and just didn't know what to do. Simba wanted to believe her, he really did, but at the same time she had never done anything nice to him, and he didn't have a reason to believe her.

Nala just walked over to the pond and looked into the water at her own reflection as well. She didn't know why Simba had a hard life, but it seemed like no matter what she did, it was still going to be bad, as if intended to be that way.

"You know, I never met my mother, and I've always wondered what she looked like. My father never told me anything about her and never speaks of her. I've always wondered why the kings decided to take her away from me at birth, and give me this life, but I'm starting to wonder if that's they're way of telling me I was a mistake" Simba said looking towards the tree.

Nala looked over at him and peered into his eyes, and saw nothing. No light, or darkness. No emotions, like a void. She knew she would never understand him, and that he would most likely never open up to her, but at the same time, she felt like it was her job to try to get him to.

"My only dream is to one day find someone who loves me. No one has ever told me that they love me before, and I just want to know what it will feel like. I see the other cubs run up to their mothers and nuzzle with them, and play with them, and sleep safe and warm with them. I just want to know what that feels like. I just wish that I had a mom of my own, someone that I could talk to, someone that understood me. I understand that you might not like me and don't want to be my friend. You got your own life, and your friends, I would hate to have to separate you from them for your own causes. So if you want, you can go, but I'll always remember you. Simba said.

He noticed that the water looked disturbed, as if raindrops were hitting it, and looked over to see that Nala was crying. He didn't know what to say or do, and for a moment just sat there, silently watching her cry.

"Nala?" Simba asked, unsure of what to do. Every night he cried himself to sleep, he was alone, so right now he had no idea what he was supposed to do for her or how to help her stop.

"I'm sorry Simba, For everything. I don't know how you could live such a cruel life, and I couldn't even imagine the pain you must feel, But I'll be your friend if that helps" Nala said wiping her tears away looking at him.

"Nala do you love someone?" Simba asked randomly. Nala was surprised to hear him asking this question, but she was about to say No when she realized she did love someone, Him.

"Yes? Why?" Nala asked trying to hide the nervousness in her voice.

"Oh, Well I, Uh… You should go be with him, and try to make him happy, and not have to worry about me, I'll be ok" Simba said trying not to cry. He wanted to be able to marry Nala but he wanted her to be happy, and if she was with him, she would be happy.

Nala just got up, and kissed him… just like that. She didn't know why she did it, it just felt so right and it felt like what he needed at a time like this. She looked at Simba as he was unresponsive. She then just started to nuzzle into his chest, and found it rather comfortable.

"I am with the one I love" She said. Simba just stood there totally still. Nala, his crush, had just kissed him and was currently nuzzling him. All he did was put his head on top of her head and smile.

It was a dull reaction, and he knew it. For some reason, he thought that when, or if he would ever find love, he would be so happy to finally have someone to share it with, but this… this was perfect.

Nala felt this gesture and just let her entire body weight fall into Simba. She felt safe and warm in Simbas arms, like how she used to feel in her own mothers. She knew that she was meant for Simba and that Simba was meant for her, and would have no objections to spending her life with him.

Simba thought that he would find love by some miracle… But in fact… he just bumped into it. 'Accidental Love' it would seem. "I love you" Simba said after countless minutes of staying that way.

"I love you too" Nala said snuggling even deeper into his coat. It was weird, they were total opposites, but just like a magnet, opposites attract. One was happy and full of love, the other was dark and depressed, but the two were meant for each other… and no one knew why. All that was for certain was that both their lives would be changed for the better, and remain that way for the rest of time.

 **Well shit… that was depressing… Anyway, I'm not trying to be hard on my homie but at least the ending was happy… Anyway thanks for reading! Comment if you want me to make a chapter 2 because I'm totally down to make it… The Mourning After… Or… Idk just give me some ideas and I'll see what I can do. Thanks as always and see ya soon. Mr_Toast Out!**


	2. Road to Recovery

**Simba's Pain Chapter 2**  
 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back everyone! Here's chapter 2 to Simba's pain. I'm thinking of making one more to this fanfiction before ending it. In this chapter and the next Simba will basically suffer from PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to all the bad shit that's happened to him. I want to thank MachineDragonNero for requesting an idea and I'll be sure to put it to work. With all that said, Enjoy!**

It had been a week since that magical moment Simba and Nala shared in his little hideout, and since then the two had only grown closer to one another.

For the first time in his life, Simba felt loved, and wanted. Like he truly had a meaning to be on this earth. Nala meant everything to him, there wasn't a moment that went by that he wasn't thinking about her.

Nala was currently walking towards Simba's little area with a plan in her mind. One that would be sure to make Simba even happier if it worked. She was skipping with joy over to where Simba would be, fixing her gaze on the golden brown cub lying on the ground.

"Simba!" Nala said as she pounced on Simba. Simba wasn't asleep but at the same time, he wasn't really awake either. He was drifting in a way and was woken up when he felt something crash into him.

He opened his eyes and jumped up, backing into the corner in a defensive state. This wasn't the first time he'd ever been jumped before and was ready for whatever was coming his way.

Nala was surprised by the reaction she was getting from Simba. Most cubs would try to wrestle back and attempt to pin the other to win.

"Simba is everything alright?" Nala asked. Simba heard the voice and knew immediately who it was. He relaxed and concentrated on slowing down his heart rate and breathing.

"Yea I'm alright, how can I help ya?" He said trying to fake a happy voice. Nala saw right past his happy voice and the goofy smile he had on. She could see fear on his eyes and could also see that he was slightly shaking still.

"No you're not alright, now why are you acting this way? Shaking, jumpy, scared…" Nala said approaching him. Simba sighed, knowing that he was going to have to tell her the truth if he ever wanted her to stop. He trusted her, he really did, but he found it hard to talk about his past with anyone, even her.

"I got scared when you pounced on me, it brought back… old memories" Simba said breaking eye contact for a few moments before looking back. Nala knew that he still had problems from his past but was trying to fix them, and she had a great idea on how to but just needed him to be open-minded.

"Simba, would you like to meet my friends? They're nice and all and I can promise you they won't do anything bad to you" she said hoping that he would accept. Nala was still his only real friend and was trying to get him to open up more and make new ones.

"I… I can't, not yet at least… but maybe one day" he said looking down. It was a miracle that Nala wanted to be his friend and he was still suffering from what the other cubs had done to him in the past.

"Ok… well…Oh! Want to meet my mother? She's nice and maybe you can finally live in the cave with us, instead of out here" Nala said. Simba felt that same pain in his chest he felt every time he thought about having a mother and how it would feel. He also didn't want to keep Nala up at night or make him worry about his nightmares.

"Umm… I can maybe meet her, but I can't sleep in the cave… I'd keep you up at night" He said trying not to get her to catch on to his nightmares. Nala knew that he was trying to hide something and then realized that he probably had nightmares, and bad ones by the sound of it, but was happy that he was willing to meet her mother.

"Well come on then, let's get going" Nala said as she turned around and headed in the direction of pride rock. She took a few steps before realizing that Simba wasn't following her, and hadn't even moved from where he was sitting.

"Can she maybe come here? I don't really like going to the den…" Simba said. The two places he hated the most where the den and the waterhole. Due to the fact that that's where the majority of the cubs hang out during the day.

"Umm sure, I'll be with her here later tonight" she said with a smile before turning and running off to the den. Her smile quickly turned to a frown and was wondering why he was so reluctant to meet new people and feel loved for a change. She just kept running towards the den to find her mother.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

It was getting late in the day, and Nala and Sarafina were making their way towards where Simba would be. Nala had already told her mother everything she knew about Simba and what he was like, just so she had an idea of who she was going to be meeting.

Simba looked up to see that Nala was walking beside what looked like to be a much older version of her. Simba felt that same feeling of pain and jealousy return that he always did but pushed it away for now.

"Hi Simba, I'm Sarafina, Nala's mother" Sarafina said as she stopped and sat down in front of Simba. She could see how tense and nervous he was and was able to tell everything wrong with him, for she was a mother after all.

"Hi" Simba responded unsure of what to do. Sarafina noticed that he had almost no social skills and didn't know how to formally greet someone due to the fact that he never had a mother. Sarafina remembers everything about Sarabi and knew that this wasn't the life she wanted Simba to have.

"So I can't help but wonder, why is someone as charming as you living in a place like this? You are royal after all" Sarafina said testing Simba's will to talk.

"Oh well umm… I like privacy after all. Being the prince makes me popular after all" Simba said. Sarafina was disappointed with his response. She knew about the bullying and his nightmares. She has seen the damage they do to him in person and has been watching over him longer than anyone else. After Mufasa had given up on Simba, Sarafina became his unofficial and unknown caretaker.

"Ah I see, well Nala and I should get going now. It was good meeting you Simba" Sarafina said before nodding and turning around with Nala in pursuit.

After a bit of walking Nala noticed that they weren't heading for pride rock, but in the other direction. "Where are we going?" Nala asked.

"Shh!" Sarafina said turning to Nala and startling her in the process. "We're circling around, there's something you need to see" she added before continuing to walk again.

After around thirty minutes of walking, plenty of time for Simba to have gone to pride rock, eaten, and returned for sleep, Sarafina and Nala arrived to see Simba asleep in his normal spot and got in a bush to hide.

Nala watched as Simba twisted and turned in his sleep, muttering things to himself that she couldn't hear from inside the bush. She could tell that he was having a nightmare, and by the looks of it, a bad one.

After a few minutes of just watching him, he started to get worse and clawing out into the air. Nala went to get up and stop him, to tell him it was just a dream but was held down by Sarafina who motioned to watch.

"Mom!" Simba yelled as he shot up, breathing heavy, soaked in sweat, and claws dug into the stone floor. Simba looked around for a few moments before shaking his head and walking over to the pond.

"Why…" he said to himself. Nala had never seen Simba act this way. She knew he still had problems with the loss of his mom, but never knew that it haunted him and kept him up at night. She watched as he just looked into the pool, not moving or saying anything as if he was in deep thought.

"What is wrong with me!" He yelled as he hit the water and got up starting to pace. "What did I do to deserve this?! Why can't I just be like everyone else?! Why do they always make fun of me and push me around?! Why can't I have a mother like everyone else?! Or at least a father that loves me?! What did I do… to deserve this… please… tell me…" Simba said looking up to the sky. Looking for anything, a sign that the kings of the past heard his cries and are responding to him. But just like before, nothing.

Nala saw his pain and was trying to make her way towards him, but her mother held her tight, not letting her go, making sure she saw what his life was truly like.

"Will you at least show me what it's like?! What having a mother is like?! What having friends and being accepted by them feels like?! I've only ever felt pain, sorrow, and regret… give me something else to feel… let me understand what it's like… that's all I want…" he said looking down.

Nala was starting to understand more and more of what his life had been like, filling in the grey areas he didn't want her finding out. Nala watched as he walked around and just complained to himself and paced around before her mother pulled her back and started to head back to pride rock.

"Usually there worse, but today wasn't as bad," Sarafina said looking at Nala. Nala was shocked to hear that this was mild and not bad.

"He loves you Nala, more than anything else, more than life itself. He dreams about losing you… it's destroying him from the inside out. Promise me you won't leave him" Sarafina said looking at Nala with a serious face.

"I promise" Nala responded. She was in utter shock. She knew he had nightmares, but what she saw was worse than anything she could imagine, and then to be told it wasn't a bad one, made her wonder exactly what Simba had to go through for his entire life up until now.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala and Sarafina were currently walking around the pride lands, with Sarafina trying to explain exactly why Simba acted as he did.

"I get that part mom, but why is it that he always acts so nervous and scared when I try to do simple things with him?" Nala said. She never understood why Simba acted to cautious and weird at times, all the bullying he had received in the past was over, and he had her now.

"Because he hasn't had an easy life, and his past still haunts him. Day and night" Sarafina replied hoping that Nala would finally understand what was wrong with him.

"But he's not getting bullied anymore so how come he's still acting like he is? Why can't he just start to act normal?" Nala said. She had never had such a hard time understanding someone in her life, and Simba was the kind of person who was hiding so much under the surface that it was impossible to understand who he really was.

"Because he's past has been hard on him. He will get better but his past will always haunt him" Sarafina retorted.

"But why can't he just let go of his past and forget about it?" Nala said getting frustrated with her mother for using all her riddles and such.

"Because some damage just can't be undone!" Sarafina yelled at Nala. Part of her regretted yelling at Nala but she knew that it was the only thing they would get through her.

Sarafina turned away from Nala and started to walk away. She knew that there was no more to be said here and that Nala would have to find out in time.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

It was nearing midnight and Nala was staring at the mouth of the cave, contemplating whether she should leave or not. When she saw how bad Simba's nightmares were late last night, she wanted to go to where he slept and help him get over them.

She knew that he would never ask her for help and would also be unable to overcome them on his own. That was Simbas greatest weakness, he needed help to overcome his past but he never asked for any, he suffered in silence.

Nala decided that enough was enough and she got up to visit Simba. She looked over to see if her mother was asleep and was relieved to see that she was. She quickly but quietly ran out of the cave over to Simba.

Sarafina opened her eyes, having only pretended to be asleep. She knew that Nala would visit Simba in the night and had been awake the entire time waiting for her to make a move. She quietly got up and trailed behind Nala making sure not to alert her.

Nala skidded to a stop when she reached Simba. She wasn't surprised to see that he was awake and staring into the pool. She started to take notice of how whenever he was troubled, he would look at himself in the pool.

"Simba?" Nala said as she lightly nuzzled into his side as she approached him from behind. When she got up to his shoulder she could see his face and felt part of his pain just looking at his expression. She felt as if he was a prisoner in his cell, trapped behind bars of hopelessness.

"Yea" He said looking at her. He knew why she was here but didn't want her to worry about him. He just wanted her to go back to pride rock and get some sleep.

"I know you have nightmares, bad ones, and I'm here to help you" She said. She knew that he would most likely refuse her help, but she was determined to break through his exterior shell and try to give him the life that he deserves.

"You don't need to worry about me, I'll be ok" Simba said. Nala internally sighed but wasn't at all surprised to hear that he was rejecting her help once again.

"But I do worry about you. You barely eat, you hardly sleep, and you know you need help but yet you still refuse it." Nala said starting to press her assault on breaking down the walls he'd built up around him over time.

"I know I need help, but I don't even know what's wrong with me… so how can I ask for help if I don't even know what I need help with…" Simba said trying to look in Nala's eyes. Every time he stared into them, he felt as if he was lost in his own little world, where for a brief moment, all the pain he had ever felt faded.

"We can ask my mom. She knows a lot about you. She knew your mother and she cares about you. I know that she would be willing to help you" Nala said burying herself into his chest as a means for comfort.

"I guess…" he said sounding depressed. Nala had heard what his depressed voice sounded like but this sounded different.

"What's wrong?" Nala asked. She was glad that he had accepted her help but the tone that he accepted it in was different than the one she would have expected him to use.

"It's just… well… sometimes I wish that I had a mother of my own…" He said closing his eyes briefly as he had flashbacks of his father. Nala felt that same pain she always felt when she experienced just a fraction of what Simba felt on a daily basis.

"I know… but you have me… and my mom… and I love you more than anything else. You're not alone in this Simba. I'm here for you" Nala said kissing the underside of his chin. This wasn't the first time she had kissed him, but just like every other time, he just froze in place. He was never shown love as a cub and grew up his entire life without experiencing it, so this whole thing was still new for him.

"Because you know just what to say… And you know just what to do… So let me start by saying… I love you…" Simba said in a hushed song like voice. **(Shoutout to you if you know that song)** Nala was stunned. Out of all the things she had expected him to say, this was way off the list.

Nala leaned into Simba, letting him support her why she snuggled deeper into his chest, silently telling him that she loved him back and was thankful for what he said.

"What do you dream about?" Nala asked. She already knew the answer, but wanted to see how Simba would handle the situation.

"A lot of things… bad things…" Simba said trying not to remember them. He hated having nightmares due to the fact that it kept him up all night going around in circles, never finding a true solution.

"What kind of bad things?" Nala asked. She knew that she was coming off as rude and nosy, but if there was any chance she would be able to help him she was going to have to know what he dreamed about.

Simba decided that he was going to give up on trying to keep the truth away from her any longer and was going to be honest henceforth. "I dream about losing you, and that you don't love me" he said.

Nala was shocked to hear this for many reasons. She didn't expect him to be so honest with her and was baffled by the fact that he would think for a second that she didn't love him.

"But I do love you, and I would never leave you… no matter what" Nala said. Running into Simba was the best thing that ever happened to her for If she hadn't, then she would have never seen Simba for who he really was.

"I know" He said. After that, the two just stayed like how they were, neither moving knowing what to do or what to say.

Sarafina had just left to head back to pride rock, relieved by how her daughter handled the situation.

Within an hour both Simba and Nala had collapsed on the floor and fell asleep with each other in there embrace without even noticing. And for the first in as long as Simba could remember, he had a dream that finally wasn't a nightmare.

Both cubs knew in there mind that this whole thing was far from over and that the road ahead was uncertain. But each knew that when they were together, nothing would be able to stand on their way.

 **Damn, I don't know why this took so long but it did. Sorry about the prolonged wait, but I will be making a chapter 3 that will most likely be the last. As always I'm all ears for any ideas to improve the story. As far as chapter 3 goes I have no idea when it will be out, and don't hesitate to get on my ass about it, but I promise I'll be posting it. That's really all to be said here so as always I'll see you guys later. Mr_Toast Out!**


	3. Friends

**Simba's Pain Chapter 3**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Chapter 3 as promised! So I have changed my mind and I'm going to stretch this story out to be a lot longer. I want to say that I can't think Machine Dragon Nero enough for all the amazing ideas and support he has giving me for writing this story. I would also like to thank SensiEd7583 for a heart touching comment and some more motivational support. This is by far my most liked story, so if you're enjoying go ahead and leave a review saying so and maybe some ideas of your own. With all that said, Enjoy!**

It had been a few days since Simba and Nala had that serious conversation that one night. Sarafina had been watching the two cubs closely ever since. She knew how reckless and impatient her daughter could be, and how fragile Simba's feelings were, and wouldn't take much for there relationship to go south.

Sarafina was currently watching Simba and Nala from a distance, furiously thinking about Mufasa. It was his fault entirely that Simba had a terrible past. It was his selfish and egocentric actions that had scared Simba's life, and what made it worse was that he didn't even care about it.

When Sarabi passed away giving birth to Simba, Mufasa failed to realize that he wasn't the only one who lost someone that day. Simba also lost someone that day, his mother. Mufasa was so thick headed and bold to react that he didn't even consider that fact that Simba had lost the person who was supposed to have the greatest impact on his life and shunned him for it.

Sarafina was surprised that Mufasa didn't even think about what Sarabi would have wanted for her only cub. She was sure that by now Mufasa would have realized that this wasn't the life that Sarabi would want for Simba and that he would have stepped up and been the father that Simba should have always had.

Sarafina wanted to go up to Mufasa and just smack the living daylights out of him or curse him for everything he'd done to his only son, but he was the king. Doing that could mean she could be charged with treason, and banished.

Sarafina knew that she was going to have to confront him at some point, and all she could do for now was wait for the right moment. She knew that there were more important thing to be addressed, like Simba.

Sarafina needed a way to be able to make Simba regain confidence in himself. She watched as he moved around his little camp, and could see the build he had. Unlike the other cubs, he was strong, she could make out each and every muscle, vein, and tendon in his body.

What also surprised her was that he wasn't skinny either. She knew that he went nights without eating as a cub, and only wondered how he came to be more muscular than the other cubs. Sarafina knew that Simba had a great advantage over the other cubs, speed and strength. The only problem was that he was too scared to confront them or stand up to them on his own.

His greatest disadvantages where his past, and his lack of social skills. Growing up without a mother or any friends made him rather weird and shy, which were two things a bully could easily use to hurt him.

Sarafina knew that Nala was trying to introduce him to some of her friends, but was unable to due to the fact that just about everyone he's ever met has made fun of him and put him down.

Sarafina knew that Kula would be a good place to start. She had never known her to be aggressive or do anything to hurt someone else.

Sarafina got up from her little hiding spot and started to head back to pride rock. She trusted Nala enough now not to do something stupid and mess this whole thing up, and she had something more important to tend to, confronting her king.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

"Cooooome ooooooon! Please!" Nala said with a sarcastic pouty face. She was currently trying to pressure Simba into meeting her friends with no avail.

"No" Simba said not finding her sarcasm funny. Nala sighed in defeat. There was no way to bring him to her friends, and if she brought her friends to him, then he would lose his trust in her.

"Simba I can promise you that they will do nothing to you. And if they so much as try, I'll be right there ready to defend you. I promise that they're nice people and you'll enjoy meeting them" Nala said with a serious tone, looking into his eyes.

"Are you certain they won't try to humiliate me?" Simba said after s few moments of thinking. He did want to have people he could take to and trust, but when the only people that he could talk to and trust have made a joke of him for his entire life, it's a little hard.

"Certain" Nala said. She could adrenaline racing through her body as she was preparing for him to finally try and meet new people.

"Fine, when?" Simba asked exhaling, turning around to move towards the pond, looking at his reflection.

"Well we could go right now…" Nala said excited, hoping that she wasn't pushing her luck in the moment. Ever since she first meet him, it has been her goal to introduce him to her friend and was just trying to not screw it up.

"Ok" Simba said Turning around. "Lead the way"

Nala smiles and ran up to him, giving him a gentle nuzzle before turning around and trotting towards the den, looking behind her so make sure Simba was following her.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Kula and Tama were currently laying around near pride rock. They were incredibly bored and trying to find something to do. Until recently, Nala was always with them, which made playing games easy, but since there's only the two of them, the only games they can play are Tag, Pinned ya, and Hide and Seek, which get boring after awhile.

As if on cue, Nala came running through the tall grass and stopped in front of them. Kula jumped up on excitement, and ran over to Nala, while Tama slowly got up and made her way over as well.

"About time you showed up! We've been trying to find something to do all day! So ya wanna play Tag, or Hide and Seek? Or maybe have a race where-" Kula was saying enthusiastically before Nala raised her paw to cut her off.

"Umm I'm actually here for a different reason" Nala said smiling a little at how excited her friends were to see her, but realize that she was here for 'business'.

"Is it about why you're always gone and no longer hang out with us?" Tama asked, Finally making her way up to Nala. Kula and Tama where holding bets on what Nala was up to and why she never wanted to hang out anymore.

"Uhh… Yes, actually" Nala was a little surprised at first, but then realized that she had barely spent any time with her friends at all over the past week or so. "Well now that you're both here, I want you to meet someone" Nala said nervously smiling before moving aside to reveal Simba. She had promised him that they wouldn't make fun of him, but that was only to reassure him, in truth, she had no idea what was going to happen.

Both Kula and Tama looked past Nala to see a strange cub, around there age, standing just outside of the tall grass. Kula immediately noticed his build. She could see each and every muscle in his chest and legs by the way he was standing towards her and started to daydream about him. Tama also noticed this and thought that he might actually be a worthy adversary in a sparring match.

"Wow" Kula said approaching Simba just a hair to fast, marveling her view of the perfect cub she always dreamed about. Simba saw the way she was coming towards him and started back up into the grass.

Kula stopped and looked at his facial expression. She could tell he was nervous and confused and stopped a few feet away from him. She also got a little nervous and started to think that she was doing something wrong and her dream cub was going to run away from her.

Nala trotted up to Simba and started to whisper in his ear. Kula and Tama watch, confused as to why someone so strong and powerful would let her get so close to him. They were trying to make out what they were talking about, but the grass rubbing up against each other made it impossible to hear anything.

After a moment Simba and Nala started to approach them. They both noticed that Simba was acting like he was prepared to fight another lion by the way he was breathing and walking.

"Ok. So… Kula, Tama this is Simba. Simba, this is Kula, and that's Tama" Nala said nervously introducing them to each other, hoping that all hell won't break loose.

"Hi I'm Kula" Kula said taking a step towards Simba so that she was almost brushing up against him. Tama rolled her eyes and pulled Kula backed next to her before she embarrassed herself.

"Sorry about her, she's always like this" Tama said. Simba was shocked, at first he thought Tama was a boy, do to the fact of the hair on the top, and the rather negative kind of attitude, but after hearing her talk, there was no way she wasn't a girl.

"So does he talk or not?" Tama asked starting to get impatient due to the fact that Simba hadn't said anything the entire time.

"Of course he talks" Nala replies with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "He's just a little shy, that's all" Nala said regaining her confidence to control the situation.

"Why is a guy like that" Kula said, simultaneously gesturing to his build. "Shy?" Kula added. She was certain that he could run anyone through as if they were nothing.

Nala went to speak up but Tama beat her to it. "Wait… Your the king's son… the reject. I thought I recognized you, you're the one we used to pull pranks on" Tama said now no losing what little respect she has built for him in the past five minutes.

"Umm yea…" Nala said. "Well he's a really fun guy and I think you'll enjoy his company" Nala said looking at Simba to make sure that comment didn't offend him or anything.

"Well let's first see if he really talks. Come on say something" Tama said looking him into eyes trying to intimidate him, but he didn't even budge. "Can you do anything? I mean what kind of a mother raised you not to talk anyway?" Tama said starting to get annoyed.

Nala felt her heart shatter instantly after the words left Tamas mouth. Nala lost all her confidence and it was immediately replaced by fear. The fear of losing Simba.

Simba wasn't sad or hurt, he only felt rage. A rage that he had contained his entire life, which he had been able to vent, but now the vents were broken, and the floodgates opened.

"I never had a mother! She died giving birth to me! And my father blames me for her death and hates me because of it! I raised myself, everything I know was self-taught! Unlike you! A spoiled little girl who is accepted by her parents and actually has people that like her!" Simba yelled ramming up into her knocking her off balance causing her to fall.

Everyone was shocked. Simba went from being completely calm and docile to being engaged on a level they had never seen. Tama felt her own anger start to raise and got up to push Simba.

She ran right into him but he didn't budge. She started to quickly feel a slight pinch of fear when she felt how strong he truly was. Simba started to steadily increase his force and started to pry her arms apart and close the distance.

Tama used all her strength to try to counter but it was no use. His force was like a piston, it was steady and just kept coming.

Simba threw her to the ground and jumped on top of her before she had the chance to even breath. "Now, if you value your safety, and your personal well being, then I would never, NEVER, say that again" Simba said in a deep, rumbling voice which cut right through Tamas defenses.

After a few moments, Simba regained control of his body again, and say that there were tears in Tama eyes and that she was beyond scared… she was terrified. Simba got off her and backed up.

He looked around see that everyone was looking at him like he was a monster. He realized what he had done and then it hit him. He had just ruined his chances of ever gaining anyone's trust or friendship again.

Simba started to become scared as well. Scared of the thing that he had become on the outside.

Scared that he had broken his vow to never hurt anyone the same way he was hurt himself.

"Simba…?" Nala said cautiously approaching him. She was the only other who wasn't afraid of him and had the courage to approach him. When she reaches him she nuzzled up next to him to see if she could get any kind of a reaction.

"What have I done…" Simba muttered. Then it hit Nala. Simba was scared of what he had just done and would have most likely ruined his chances of making new friends.

Tama slowly got up with the help from Kula. Having the same look on her face that she did when Simba tackled her. Tama was no crybaby either, she could extremely violent at times and people knew not to mess with her.

"This wasn't a good idea…" Simba said looking down while feeling the guilt set it. "You'll know where to find me" Simba said looking at Nala before slowly turning to leave.

Nala didn't even try to stop him for two reasons. One she couldn't even if she wanted to, and she needed to see if there was any way to unscrew what had just happened here.

"Tama, are you ok?" Nala said approaching her two friends. She was shocked to see that Tama had tears in her eyes, and didn't even know that Tama was capable of crying.

"What was that?" Tama asked after finally being able to gain control of her fear once more. Tama had never had anyone try to fight her, let alone strike first, and she had never lost to anyone her age before.

"I don't know… but I'm sorry… look he's had a… rough past and his mother is a very sensitive topic. I think you just made him really angry" Nala said trying to make sense of what had just happened.

"No… I mean… How? He was so fast and so strong. I tried fighting back but it was as if I was being crushed…" Tama said still baffled by his strength. Sure she knew he looked strong, but not anywhere near that strong.

"Well I'm sure if we give him some space he will-" Nala was saying before she was cut off by Tama.

"No, I'm going after him… I have questions and I need answers" Tama said before getting up and bolting towards where he left. Nala knew that it would be incredibly unlikely for her to know where Simba would be, let alone find it by wandering around, so she decided not to follow her.

Nala then realized that she hadn't thought about how Kula was after that whole episode. She turned around to see that Kula was looking at her as if confused on what she should be doing in a moment like this.

"Are you ok?" Nala asked briefly examining her to make sure she has no open wounds or anything.

"Yea I'm fine" Kula said before breaking eye contact and looking the other way. "Though I still think he's cute" Kula said smiling to herself while blushing a little.

Nala felt a ping of jealousy on the inside, but pushed it off and rolled her eyes. She got up and ran off in the directions of Simba's little hideout to make sure that he was ok himself.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba sat in front of the pool, looking down at his reflection as he always did when he was upset. He didn't feel bad for hitting Tama, but at the same time, he did.

When he looked in her eyes he saw the same fear he experienced every time he got bullied. When Simba was younger, he vowed to never Instow the fear that others instilled in him. In shorter terms, he would never become the monsters that bullied him relentlessly.

Simba could hear that someone was approaching him fast, and turned around expecting him to be Nala, but was utterly shocked to see that Tama was just outside of the tall grass, looking a little nervous, making sure not to invade his boundaries again.

"Look… I'm sorry for what I did and I know it was wrong…" Simba said. That was all he was capable of coming up in the past five minutes, but it sounded a lot better than 'Sorry I beat the crap out of you and tried to kill you, Wanna be friends?'. Tama was a little surprised that he apologized. After his little episode, she didn't really see him as the apologetic type.

"It's ok… I'm sorry as well. I didn't know about your mom being… well… you know…" Tama said trying not to provoke him again. Simba saw the way she was acting and felt bad. He didn't mean to scare her, and by the quick little conversation he had with her, she didn't sound a scaredy cat. (No pun intended).

"It was my fault. I shouldn't have threatened you and I don't know why I did. I think I just got mad and I didn't have any way to vent it, so I just resorted to physical violence" Simba said feeling the same guilt he felt before start to soak into his chest.

"So who bullies you? I'm really the most aggressive cub and I know I don't…" Tama asked. She started to feel a little bit more comfortable being around him but was still unsure of where to draw the line. She had a hard time understanding him. She experienced how strong he was first hand, yet he was still bullied on a regular basis.

"Mostly Chumvi. But sometimes his friends join in as well. Being Tojo and Malka" Simba said a little ashamed. Tama stood there dumbfounded, trying to make sure she heard him right.

There was no way that it could be Tojo, he was just to nice. Chumvi as well, he was always kind to her. Now maybe, just maybe, Malka could do it, but still, he was way to nice for that to be a characteristic of him.

"But Tojo, Malka, and Chumvi are all so nice. It would be completely uncharacteristic of any of them to do such a thing. Especially to a point to cause that much rage and pain" Tama said trying to uphold her opinions of her other friends.

"Well they did, and I didn't say you had to believe me, but that's how it is" Simba responded annoyed that she was sticking up for those guys. SImba knew that Tojo and Malka never really participated, and Tojo even looked a little sad half the time. But he was sure that Chumvi found it enjoyable to torment and inflict pain on each other.

"Sorry," Tama said for making him get all defensive. Tama could hear someone else approaching from behind and quickly turned around and got ready for an intruder.

Tama wasn't shocked to see that Nala had come through the bush, and skidded to a stop right in front of her. Nala looked at Tama as if surprised to see her standing there. Tama was a little weirded out by her look. She explicitly remembers telling Nala where she was going.

"How did you find him?" Nala asked. Nala would have never found this place if she hadn't followed Simba back to it. It was hidden really well due to all the tall grass and the terrain made it pretty hard to get to it any direction other than east, the opposite direction of Pride rock.

"I followed him?" Tama asked surprised that Nala would ask such a dumb question. Nala looked at her for a second before turning her attention to Simba, who had already gone back to looking at his reflection in the water.

Nala walked past Tama and went to sit down next to Simba by the pond as she had done many times before. Tama watched as Nala started to whisper things to Simba, and how Simba would give little comments or body gesture as responses. Tama had to admit, Nala had a really strong bond with Simba and he had a lot of trust in her, do to the fact that she was the only one that he would freely talk to about his problems.

After a few moments, Simba gave her a little passionate nuzzle before turning away and lying down on his all-time famous sleeping rock. Tama was a little confused on what exactly was supposed to happen. Simba had just lied down on some rock, and Nala was looking into the pond.

"Umm… excuse me but what now?" Tama asked unsure of what she was supposed to do or what was going to happen. Ever since she had met Simba, stuff started to make less and less sense and she was just in a world on confusion.

"Umm well what do you want to do?" Nala asked also unsure of what to do. "Well, I guess we could all use some rest, so you can do what you please" Nala said before going over a lying up against Simba.

Tama then realized that Simba and Nala had something more than just a friendship, but a relationship. Tama sighed before finding a place of her own and plopped down before closing her eyes. The three cubs quickly dozed off into sleep shortly after lying down.

The cubs were unaware that Kula had walked in and laid down as well, as a means of not being left out of the group decision. Nala found it uneasy to have any peaceful thoughts during her sleep. The thought of Simba making new friends wasn't a nice one and there were so many risks, such as losing Simba's trust and love, but Nala knew that she would have to suck it up and just try to push on.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Mufasa was currently walking back to pride rock after a long day of getting nothing done and dwelling on the past. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice that Sarafina had snuck up behind him.

"Going somewhere?" Sarafina said is a rather annoyed tone. Mufasa was too tired to catch her tone at first and just mumbled something that was inaudible without even stopping. "You know normally a king doesn't turn his back on his own" Sarafina said with a smirk. She was referring to herself and Simba and this time Mufasa did catch her tone.

"What do you want?" Mufasa said turning around annoyed. All he wanted to do was go back to the den and eat dinner. Also, he didn't consider Sarafina to be the best a holding a conversation either.

"We need to talk about your son" Sarafina said. Mufasa looked at her for a moment with a blank face, saying that he wasn't following. Sarafina felt the anger in herself raise just a little more, but was still able to contain it. "Your son, Simba… You couldn't have forgotten your own son" Sarafina added with a lot of annoyance in her voice.

"Oh, what about him?" Mufasa asked with the same annoyance but added a little disgust in there to symbolize his hatred towards his own son.

"He needs you Mufasa. He never knew his mother and he's only ever wanted his fathers love. How much longer will you keep this up? I mean the pride lands will need a new king one day, and Simba is heir to the throne. So if you won't accept as your son, then could you at least accept him as your successor" Sarafina said bluntly, hoping that something she said would make it through his thick skull.

"Now there is no way that I would ever give that little hairball the right to be king! He is a murderer and a traitor! And besides, there are other more suitable options to be my successor" Mufasa retorted.

"How could you say that?! Sarabi died during childbirth! That wasn't Simba's fault! Mufasa you are making a grave mistake! The entire future of the pride lands rests in Simbas ability to be an effective ruler. And if you can't teach him to be one in time then you have doomed us all!" Sarafina yelled. It was a bold move today these things about the king, and she knew well enough of the punishment for her actions, but quite frankly didn't care in the instance.

"If you think it's so important to teach him how to be a king then you do it your damn self!" Mufasa shouted before turning around and heading back to pride rock before his dinner lost taste.

Sarafina just looked at his retreating figure in disgust. He openly admitted to blaming Simba for Sarabi's death and had given up on his only heir. Sarafina knew that Mufasa was going to be unwilling to teach Simba how to be a king one day, and she had no power to tell him otherwise. But there was nothing stopping her from teaching him herself, after all, she had the kings blessing.

Sarafina knew what had to be done, and was going to need to prepare for tomorrow. One way or another she would see to it that Simba will one day take his rightful place upon the throne and rule the pride lands and he was once destined to. With that, she started to make her way back to pride rock, mentally preparing herself for the weeks to come. She wasn't sure if Simba was ready to be a king, but if the pride wanted to avoid falling into anarchy, He would have to be ready…

 **Chaaaaapteeeer threeeeee! Done! So I know that you might not have seen that ending coming, but it's true. Hopefully, Simba won't screw up and end up ruining the pride his ancestors worked so hard to build. I just want to make it official that In chapter 4, I will be introducing Chumvi, Tojo, and Malka as characters rather than references. Hopefully, I can post chapter 4 inside of a week, but then again my computed could blow up or something like that. So that's basically it, Hopefully, you enjoyed, and if you did or didn't, write a review about it! Mr_Toast Out!**


	4. Morning Walk

**Simba's pain chapter 4**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back! So like I said in the A/N of chapter 3, I'm finally going to be introducing Chumvi, Tojo, and Malka into this chapter. Just want to thank you guys for the reviews and support that you're giving me! Means a lot. If you like or dislike something about this story, don't be shy to voice your opinion, I'm open to any ideas that could improve this story. So with that said, hope you guys like chapter 4. Enjoy!**

It was late in the day, nearing dusk. Nala was currently watching Simba's sleeping figure intently, watching the rise and fall of his chest and studying every detail about it. Kula and Tama had already gone back to pride rock to avoid getting in trouble for staying out too late, but luckily Nala was allowed to if her mother knew where she would be.

 **(REALLY IMPORTANT DO NOT SKIP! So I just want to remind Y'all that at this time in the story, Simba is just a little bit smaller than Sarafina, but not by much. This is important in helping you understand just how big and mature he is at the point in time. He is ten months old right now, everyone else is Nine months cause he's like special... yea ... Sorry, continue reading)**

Unbeknownst to Nala, Simba wasn't asleep and could see her spying on him from the corner of his eye. He was waiting for her to say something or do something, but it had already been near twenty minutes since she started.

"What?" Simba said breaking the silence moving his head so he was looking in her general direction. Nala was a little startled by this. She didn't think he was awake due to how peaceful he looked, then again, if he was asleep he probably would be that peaceful after all. Nala briefly remembered what he looked liked when he was having that nightmare but shook that bad memory away.

"It's nothing" Nala said trying to avoid a conversation about what was on her mind. Simba smirked a little due to how hypocritical she could be. She always said he should talk about what was bothering him, and yet here she was, keeping it to herself.

"Come on, you should talk to others about what's bothering you so that maybe they can help" Simba said slowly getting up to a sitting potion. Nala sighed in defeat knowing that he had used her own tricks against her, and would bug her all night about it.

"Fine, it's just you've changed… and I'm worried…" Nala said breaking eye contact. Simba knew he had changed, and thought that she would be happy. His nightmares weren't as bad, he met new people, developed better social skills. Those were always good things in his book.

"Yea, for the better" Simba said to reassure her and to try to get a more clear answer from her. Nala knew that he would say that and obviously had no idea about what kind of change she was talking about.

"Not really, it's about your anger. Before you used to be able to control it, and it wasn't a problem. But earlier today you snapped and I was afraid someone was going to get hurt" Nala said.

Simba then understood where she was going. He didn't mean to snap like that, and she knew that, but the problem was that he did, and wasn't even aware of it at the moment. "I know, It was just the comment she said hurt, more than usual" Simba said trying to make sense of why he would have lashed out like that.

"I know, it's just… well" Nala said not wanting to finish her sentence, not wanted to think about the rest. "Yes?" Simba added. "Well… what if you didn't stop?" Nala said cringing at the thought.

"Didn't stop what?" Simba asked. He knew she was talking about the little episode he had but she was being really vague about the whole topic.

"Well, what if you didn't stop, and well either hurt her really bad, or worse…" Nala said. She knew that Simba would never take a life on purpose, but she saw how he reacted and at that moment she wasn't sure if he would or wouldn't take her life.

"I… I don't know…" Simba said ashamed. He didn't want to even begin to think of what would happen if he did. He vowed never to hurt someone, and if he killed someone out of rage, he would become much more than the monster he feared.

At that moment Simba didn't trust himself, he couldn't. He was too afraid at lashing out at Nala and potentially hurting her.

"My nightmares, as of recently…" Simba said abruptly. This caused Nala to drop everything and focus solely on him. She had always wondered what his dreams where like in more detail, but didn't want to get pushy or nosy about his business.

"I dream that I hurt you… That I'm some kind of a monster, fueled by rage and despair, and I'm terrified that it will come true. And after today, I'm not sure if I can trust myself to be around you" Simba said.

Then it hit Nala. When her mother said he dreamt about losing her, she thought about breaking up or going separate ways. She would have never thought that his dreams where about him accidentally killing her out of rage.

"Simba I know that you would never hurt me" Nala said as she sat up and started to approach him. She saw him try to back away to increase the distance. Nala then knew he was serious when he said he couldn't trust himself around her.

Nala closed her eyes, exhaled, and slowly started to step forward to get closer to him. She trusts him with her life, and she wanted to make sure that he knew that no matter what, she would always love him.

Nala felt the side of her face brush up against the side of his. She could feel how tense and timid he was at that instance but didn't think about backing away. She slowly started to move her head over and down, and Simba followed her lead until there foreheads touching.

Simba didn't need to be taught that this was a sign of a great amount of trust and love in another. "I'm not afraid of being with the one I love" Nala whispered. She could feel Simba starting to ease up and relax and was satisfied that her plan had worked.

"Me neither" Simba said. He felt her forehead retreat and opened his eyes to see she was looking into his. He always got nervous when he made eye contact like this, just like before there relationship when he still had a crush on her.

"Come on it's late, we should get some sleep" Nala said while turning around to walk towards his normal sleeping spot. She looked behind her to see that he was trailing a little behind her as if unsure of what to do.

"You staying here tonight?" He asked once her gaze met his. "Are you not?" She replied with a smile. Simba felt a tingly sensation and decided not to waste any more time before she changed her mind.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Sarafina woke up before dawn to get to Simba's little hideout. She had devised a plan that should work if he decides to go to with the program. The thing she worried about the most was that when Simba thought of a king, he thought of his father.

Sarafina knew that Simba would never want to be like his father, so if she proposed the idea of him being king, without first ensuring the fact that he would never end up like his father, then he would instantly turn her down.

The plan she had in mind was to try to use Simba's more caring side to persuade him into being king. She going to destiny and fate carry out the plan while she oversees the process to make sure they stay on track. It was a genius plan that was very simple, yet very effective.

When Sarafina got to Simba's hideout, she was surprised to see that Nalas was asleep in Simbas normal spot, but Simba was nowhere to be found. Sarafina could easily make out each detail of the terrain, even though the slight crack of sunlight coming over the mountains and confirmed he wasn't here.

"Hey, Nala, Where's Simba?" Sarafina asked as she shook her daughter awake. Nala would usually wake up two hours later than now and was a little irritated with the rude awakening.

"He's next to me… now go away… I'm trying to sleep" Nala said in a tired tone without even opening her eyes to acknowledge her mother. Sarafina rolled her eyes and nudge Nala just hard enough to get her up.

"Check again" Sarafina said in a more authoritative tone to tell Nala she was serious. Nala slowly got up and realized that he wasn't next to her, and she raced to her feet frantically looking around for him.

Sarafina was surprised by Nala reactions and started to realize she was falling behind on their relationship status. "Where could he be?" Nala asked.

"Well if anything shouldn't you know?" Sarafina said as she watched her daughter walking around the site checking in places that he obviously wouldn't be in.

"Well, he was here when I went to sleep" Nala said baffled at how he could slip out without her noticing. Sarafina knew that she wasn't going to get anything out of Nala, and decided to have a little look around the place.

As soon as she got on top of a hill nearby, she saw what looked like a lion, in its adolescent stage, sprinting across the safari with incredible speed. She continued to watch the figure and was surprised that it was able to keep such a pace for such a long time.

Sarafina heard Nala running up the hill and skid to a stop next to her. "That's him!" Nala said in an enthusiastic voice as she leaped from her spot and ran off at an angle to intercept him.

"How do you know?" Sarafina called out confused that Nala was so certain it was Simba and not someone else. "Because I know my Simba anywhere!" Nala yelled over her shoulder not even bothering to stop or turn around.

Sarafina sighed and started to run after her daughter to catch up.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was currently sprinting as fast as he could. For the past three months, he had been doing intense workouts early in the mourning as a way to briefly escape from everything else for the time being. He was focusing on the point he had set as a marker to compare his time with previous runs.

It was really early the mourning so he never had to worry about anyone catching or disturbing him. The only new thing he had to work out was making sure he got back before Nala woke up.

Simba was nearing his checkpoint and was so focused on the short distance to it that he didn't see the figure walk out of the bush in time and only had one option. Simba stomped his right foot down and bank hard to the right sending him flying into the bush.

Simba slowly got up still trying to comprehend what exactly had just happened. He had never seen anyone else up at this time before and he had chosen this route because it was far away from pride rock and he had never seen anyone on it before.

Simba got back on the trail and saw that the figure was trotting over to him. Simba was surprised to see that it was no other than Tama, and by the looks of it, she was just as confused as he was.

"What are you doing here?" Tama said in a quiet voice In case there was anyone else around them. Tama had already figured out that wherever Simba was, Nala was sure to be around as well.

"Uhhh… mourning walk… so what are you doing here?" Simba asked as he slowly got up, surprised he was able to after crashing like that.

"Mourning walk? You were practically flying!" Tama said a little louder than she meant to. Simba was a little startled by her response but then used one of Nalas dirtiest tricks.

"Well you never answered my question, so what were you doing out here so early?" Simba asked hoping that it would work on other people besides himself. Tama internally sighed when he said that. She knew that Nala was notorious for doing that and there was no way to back out of it.

"Same as you, only I was walking" Tama said. There was a brief silence between the two with neither of them knowing what to do or say. Simba finally decided to take Nalas advice and attempted to make a social interaction.

"So why are you talking a walk? Most people don't take walks this early unless something is bothering them" Simba said nervously. He could tell when people were sad or angry. Those were his two most common emotions after all.

"It's Malka. He says I'm too angry and aggressive at times. He just doesn't understand me. I mean if anyone's too aggressive I gotta say it's you" Tama said freely without thinking. Tama saw the look of pure guilt in Simba's eyes when she said that last part and felt a little bad. "Oh… sorry" Tama said a little nervous.

Simba was the only person Tama didn't want to fight. She had no problems getting into skirmishes with the others cubs be he was different. She was still a little nervous talking to him, especially right now. Alone, early in the mourning, middle of nowhere... just a bad combo.

"Nah it's ok" Simba said. He heard someone approaching from behind and fast. "Someone's coming" he said as he quickly turned around to face the incoming person.

"But I don't hear anything" Tama said as she walked up beside him. Not a second later she could hear the faint footsteps of a running lion in the distance and was surprised he was able to pick that up before she could.

Nala came running out of the bush and skidded to a stop right in front of Simba. The sun had risen a little more now and she could see that he was drenched in sweat. Her initial reaction was that he had another nightmare and didn't want her to find out.

A few seconds later Sarafina came trotting out of the bush and approached the young price. "Simba, could I please talk to you?" She said as she turned around walking away, expecting him to follow.

"About what?" Nala asked as if speaking for Simba. Sarafina was starting to grow more and more irritated with the amount of disrespect Nala had adopted over the past month.

"About his future, now go back to pride rock and you can wait for me there" Sarafina said right before she disappeared into the savanna. Simba looked over at Nala and just nodded before running off to catch up Sarafina.

Nala just sighed and turned around finding herself surprised to see an ever so stoic Tama standing there waiting. Nala then realized that she indeed had been standing there longer than she had and decided to not ask the question of how long.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Sarafina and Simba had been walking in silence for nearly twenty minutes now. It was long uncomfortable silences like this one that Simba hated the most. He never knew what the other person wanted to talk about and was scared he was going to embarrass himself trying to start one. Simba was walking behind Sarafina and could tell that her body language told that she felt fine, yet every time he talked to her, her attitude told a different story.

"You can't let her know about your past" Sarafina said breaking the silence. Simba was so focused on the silence that when she spoke out it generally startled him. The one thing he never understood about Sarafina was that she always seemed to talk in riddles, or purposely leave out part of the truth almost as if she wanted you to ask another question.

"Let who know… And why not" Simba asked a little cautious by how vague she was being about… well… everything.

"Nala. She wouldn't understand and it would do more harm than anything" Sarafina replied already knowing what his past was like after watching him grow up in isolation. Simba was a little weirded out by this response because the only person who had a clue as to what his past was like, and she only knew of it.

"My past wasn't that bad, there were just some rough bumps along the way" Simba said thinking that his lies could protect him. Sarafina had had enough of his lies and evasion about the topic of his past and decided that it was time that he really knew about her knowledge on the topic.

"Bumps? Was the time you're father grabbed you by the scruff and threw you out of pride rock a bump? Or the time you broke your ribs falling down a hill, and refusing to get help out of fear that you would be made further fun of? And let's not forget the time you went almost an entire week without eating a single thing. Simba, I know who you are. And I know that if my daughter found out it would most certainly destroy her" Sarafina said in a loud turning around looking Simba in the eyes, making sure he absorbed every word she had said.

Simba stood there in shock. He had never told a soul about those moments, and never planned on it, so the fact that she had just described them in detail was mind-blowing to him. "Y-you… Know…" Simba said staring blankly into her eyes.

"Yes. I was the one who kept you warm throughout that night, The one who cleaned your wound when you were sleeping, and the one who stopped eating to make sure there was something left for you. I know it sounds strange, but I knew your mother… Sarabi was my best friend… and I know that's what she would have wanted" Sarafina said backing away giving Simba some breathing room.

Simba was now lost. All those little things he thought were miracles and good luck… were her. The fact he didn't freeze to death when he was only two months old was because of her. The fact he didn't die of blood loss or infection was… Because of her. He owed his life to her on many accounts.

"I… I… You?" Simba said as he looked at her, deeply studying her eyes for and any signs that she could be lying… yet he found none. It was as if he did have someone that cared for him all that time. Someone who he could call his… Mother…

"Me" She said reassuring him that he wasn't go crazy. She knew she should have done things about the bullying and taken him in when she still had the chance to, but at the same time, she was waiting for him to fight for himself… but he never did.

"Simba" Sarafina said. That was it. Just Simba. He was now thinking that he was definitely hallucinating due to how weird this entire situation was. "Simba means Strength. Your mother always knew you would be the strongest of them all, and she was never wrong, not for a second" Sarafina said breaking a smile.

"You're wrong…" Simba said feeling ashamed that he couldn't be what his mother wanted him to become. "I had no friends, I was a loser, I was always embarrassing myself, I was always considered stupid because I didn't have a mother to teach me proper grammar when I was young. If anything I should have been named weak" Simba said sighing feeling the pains of his past slowly start to soak into his chest.

"You're wrong" Sarafina said replying with a smirk. "You're incredibly strong. You're living on your own and you're only a cub. You take beatings day and night yet you always pull through. You work harder than most adults and yet your just a child. That Simba… is Strength. Now you only need to learn how to use it, and then, you will be the greatest king there will ever be" Sarafina said in a motivational tone that even had the effect of motivating herself.

"Will you promise me something…" Simba said looking dead serious. Sarafina nodded. "If I start to become my father, even in the slightest. I want you to end me. I know it sounds harsh… but I won't inflict the pain that he inflicted into me on others. I just won't" Simba said. Sarafina knew that she couldn't kill Simba. He was like a son to her. Killing him would be no different than killing her other two cubs. But she knew inside that he had too big of a heart to ever come to close to becoming someone like his father.

"I promise" Sarafina said cringing on the inside. She knew that she couldn't keep the promise, but she knew she would never have to worry about it at the same time.

"Well, then where do we start?" Simba said. Not a moment went by when he didn't fear of becoming the monster his father was, but he owed this to her. She was the sole reason he was still alive and she had promised him. He also knew that Nala would be happy that he was going to try to become the person he was always meant to be.

"For now, go on back and get to know Tama and Kula. If you have any questions, you can ask Nala. She'll know what's best for you" Sarafina said smiling at him.

Sarafina had already devised a plan that he would gladly accept. It was simple. He would just need to be around Nala and her friends for a while and over time he would become more comfortable and eventually he would be forced to interact with the males, but then he would already have the ego to stand up for himself.

He already had the body and strength to be king, no two ways about that, and Tama would provide to be an excellent fighting instructor. Kula will help him become more social and outgoing. And Nala… Nala will help him through hard times and always be that reason to suck it up and push through.

Tojo will show him that not all people are bad. Malka will prove that loyalty to one's kin will always win. And Chumvi, Chumvi will prove that no matter what your fears are, there are always ways to overcome them. Her plan was simple, and the best part was that it would play itself out. Sure she would still be watching their every move closely, but it was better than the boring old fashion way which was one on one instruction from sunrise to sunset.

All Sarafina had to do now was given density the wheel, and sit back making sure nothing went wrong. It was time that the prince returns. It is time that he reclaims his birthright which so ignorantly striped from him. It was time that the light shown once again on the pride lands. It was time for the mistakes of the past to be washed away, and for the line be restored…

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba had made sure that Nala would be able to see his return from pride rock by taking a more exposed route. He was hoping that she would see him so he didn't have to go anywhere near that godforsaken place, and was relieved once he saw Her, Tama, and Kula making their way down towards where he was walking.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Chumvi, Malka, and Tojo were all randomly wandering around the pride lands desperate to find something they could do. All Tojo wanted to do was to try to impress his crush, Nala. Malka wanted to try to find out why Tama was so mad at him. And Chumvi was listing games that they used to play when they were little… littler cubs that they have since outgrown.

"Come on let's pop in and say hi. Besides they don't mind our company" Tojo said purposely leaving out the part of wanting to show off his small gain of muscle in the past two weeks to Nala.

"Yeaaaaa no. I don't need to remind you what happened last time you tried to make yourself look big and tuff. Luckily I was there to keep Tama from killing you after you challenged her to a fight to prove your 'masculinity'" Malka said pondering why his girlfriend was always in such a violent mood.

Chumvi rolled his eyes overhearing his friends conversation. He never understood why they always had to talk about girls. Girls this and girls that. I mean he was kinda interested in Kula, but he never talked about it.

"What to see if Simba wants to do anything? I mean where drying than this savannah on ideas… Maybe he has a few" Malka said. Chumvi quickly jumped in before anyone else a chance to talk, let alone breathe to be exact.

"You know what, Let's visit the girls" Chumvi said trying to sound enthusiastic, but not too enthusiastic as to draw attention. He didn't dislike Simba anymore but he was afraid that he might try to expose the motives behind his 'pranks'... if you could call them that.

Chumvi was a nice person, honestly, but all he wanted when he was younger and foolish… -er, was to be the prince, So when he found out that if Simba was… Unable… to be prince then he would become the heir, which means one day he would become king. Chumvi tried to scare Simba off as a cub but it never worked, so he tricked Malka and Tojo into thinking it was a joke. He felt bad now for bullying him and would never tell Malka or Tojo that he tricked them, but he also knew that he could never apologize to Simba so he just kept a secret. Chumvi was scared of the idea of other people finding out but had no idea what his so-called pranks had done to Simba, and had much... much more to fear.

Chumvi was thankful that Simba was so much of a weirdo that he never told anyone about being bullied. So every time they propose the idea of visiting him, he quickly turns it down. So when he saw Malka and Tojo get up and head out, he felt a big wave of relief wash over him as had successfully avoided another interaction with Simba again.

The three males started to make their way towards the girls usually spot on the far side of the waterhole, unbeknownst to them of a new lion that had just recently joined the group…

 **Word: Cliffhanger**

 **Definition: An ending to an episode of a serial drama that leaves that audience in suspense.**

 **Yup, that basically sums up that ending lol. I get that it's a really cheap way to end a story but at the same time it's still funny. Besides that, How what chapter 4? I real shocker I bet. I tricked most of you thinking that he was a truly cruel person I bet ey? Turns out that he was just jealous, and now he's scared… So what will his fate? Will he be given a second chance or give a one-way express ticket to hell? Lol told you cliffhangers suck. Anyway besides all that crap hope you guys enjoyed because I had a lot of fun writing this and communicating with fans to get input to make the story better. An important note is that I will credit everyone who helps in a meaningful way by added their names to the completed final chapter… so with that said I hope to see you in chapter 5… Mr_Toast... Out…**

 **Spoiler Alert: Everyone Dies**


	5. Confessions

**Simba's Pain Chapter 5**  
 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Merry Christmas Y'all! If you're wondering why I'm saying this because I'm posting this on Christmas Eve! So I wanted to clear one thing up about Simba's hideout… It's a real place. So in the Lion King 1 ½ Timon and Pumba visit this little area with a pond and cave, where Timon builds a hammock, steals Pumba's bed, and refers to it as the 'Theater District'. So basically Simba's hideout is essential that without the cave. But if you already had an idea about what it looked like then go off that, this is just what I imagined it as. So this Chapter is probably going to be really long and interesting… hopefully. It picks up right where Chapter 4 ends and by the sounds of it… there will soon be hell to pay! Also, I just want to say that there is some profound language so beware and that there will be a chapter 6!. So with that out of the way… Enjoy!**

Sarafina was quietly stalking the three males waiting for the tsunami of justice to crash upon Chumvi when he walks right into his own downfall. Sarafina was hoping that with Simba being present, the other cubs will find out about their history and serve Chumvi the justice he's been running from this whole time.

If Sarafina could, she would deal with Chumvi personally, but she knew that if she did, he would only hate Simba more and no good would come from her actions. Simba needed to show dominance over Chumvi, and that's the only way that this could be resolved.

Sarafina quietly started to back away from the trail. When she was far enough away from the three she broken into a steady run towards where the Simba and the girls would be. Sarafina knew that it would be utter chaos when the truth spilled and wanted to be there Incase someone tried to do something too rash. The two people she would really need to worry about where Nala and Tama. Both seemed really fond of their new friend and would definitely stand up for him.

Once in position Sarafina lied down without making a sound. Sarafina could be considered a silent killer. She couldn't count the number of times she has successfully completed a reconnaissance mission without the person having the slightest clue that she was even there.

Sarafina was definitely on edge in this instance. At any moment Chumvi, Malka, and Tojo would come through the bush and walk in. Currently Nala, Tama, and Kula we're off to one side just catching up seeing as Nala had mostly been absent for the past few weeks, and Simba was on the other side of the clearing, staring blankly into nothingness.

Most would read his body language as being depressed, but if you studied hard enough you could see that he was intently focusing on something, just that no one ever knew what. The four cubs were broke from their conversations and thinking when they could hear the voices of a group approaching.

Tama and Kula had just dismissed the event thinking it was no big deal, but Simba and Nala both grew nervous partly for the same reason. Simba knew that there were only three people in this world that had those voices, and what made it worse was that everyone was going to have to witness him being a coward.

Simba got up in an attempt to try to slip out without anyone noticing, but it was already too late. Chumvi, Malka, and Tojo had emerged from the tall grass perpendicular to him.

"How are we all do...ing" Chumvi said normally until he spotted Simba standing there. Chumvi stopped walking for a second and could see that everyone was observing the stare down he and Simba were having.  
Never in his life would he have though Simba would have the courage to hang around anyone, especially a girl, especially a group of them. "Uhh, what's wrong?" Malka said nudging Chumvi.

Chumvi was a little startled at first. "Nothing, so what should we… all do?" Chumvi said nervously. At this point, everyone was wondering why Chumvi was acting so weird.

"I gotta go," Simba said turning around hastily to make his retreat into the tall grass.

"Ay! Simba, come on let's do something fun" Tojo said thinking nothing of it. The only two people who could make sense of this situation where Chumvi and Nala. Tama, Kula, Malka, and Tojo where all clueless about the truth.

"No, really, I can't" Simba said whilst once more trying to turn around to put as much distance between him and this place as possible.

"Come on it will be fun" Malka said from his right. Simba instinctively thought they were trying to box him in and started to get defensive.

Tama saw the look in Simba's eyes and knew something bad was about to happen. The only other time she had seen that look on his face was when she made had made the comment about his mother.

"Let him go!" Tama said towards Malka whilst getting up. At this point, everyone was on their feet due to the intensity of the situation. "Oh not this again, why are you so mad at me?" Malka asked missing the entire point of that comment. "No I mean just let Simba be on his way" Tama said more for Malka's sake than anyone else's.

Tama knew that if Simba snapped she would not be able to stop him on her own, and that truly terrified her. "Ok everyone let's calm down and try to find the source of our problems" Tojo said not liking where this was starting to go.

"I was just asking if Simba would reconsider doing something fun with us for once since he's always… Well… I don't know where he usually is but I was just asking so chill" Malka said defending his name.

"Well, I think the reason he doesn't want to hang out with any of you is that you used to bully him… Relentlessly" Tama said. Tama was now angry at Malka for doing such a terrible thing. She didn't want to believe it was true, but at the same time, Simba was definitely scared of him in a way.

"What are you talking about? We would never bully someone" Malka said. Tojo nodded along knowing that he too would never bully someone. Tama was getting ever so frustrated. She wanted to believe them but all the evidence stated that they were just lying to her face.

"I beg to differ! I remember when we were younger. You guys would always go up to him and trip him and call him names, then continue to laugh at him while he begged for mercy. I'm not saying that I'm innocent but at least I changed" Tama said, starting to boil over with frustration.

"What do you mean? Those were only pranks" Malka said trying to get Tama to understand they meant no harm by them.

"Why don't you ask Chumvi what she means" Nala said backing Tama up. At this point, Malka was starting to get frustrated himself. Not at the girls but at the lack of understanding in this situation.

"What does she mean?" Malka said giving Chumvi a serious look. This was the first time this subject had been brought up and Malka wasn't going to back down until he got the answers he was looking for. Chumvi stared blankly into Malka's eyes. There were two ways of saying it. The brutal truth, 'I used you to bully someone without you knowing'. Or the other type of truth, 'I made a mistake and I'm sorry'.

"I…I… This is just a big misunderstanding" Chumvi said nervously as he started to realize that everyone had picked a side at this point, and it sure as hell wasn't his.

"Chumvi. You are my friend don't get me wrong. But I want you to tell me right now what you mean by misunderstanding. And don't lie" Tojo said. Tojo was terrified of the thought that he had bullied someone for a long time and had done serious damage to the point where they tried avoiding him out of fear of being picked on.

"Well… they were just pranks… ya know…"Chumvi said desperately trying to hide the truth from everyone. Chumvi had no way of hiding the truth at this point and all his attempt to try to where futile.

"The truth!" Tama yelled. Chumvi flinched back in fear at the sound of her voice. Tama was always an aggressive cub, and the last thing you wanted was for her to funnel her anger towards you. Chumvi knew that he could talk around the other questions, but Tama was more of the type to use physical violence then ask questions.

"Ok fine. They weren't pranks! I bullied him. There are you happy!" Chumvi said hoping that it would save him the trouble afterward. Everyone stood there looking at him in disgust. They cub they used to call a friend was really just a twisted dirty lier. He was false.

"Happy? You lied to us. You used us. You tricked us into helping you bully him! And I could only wonder why!" Malka said glaring hatefully towards Chumvi. At this point, Chumvi was better of telling the truth. Any attempts to try and lie would only make them hate him even more, and at this point, he just wanted to be able to call them friends again in the future.

"I wanted to be king! And I thought I could scare him off and claim the throne" Chumvi said. It sounded much, Much, better in his head, but the second it left his mouth, he felt the hatred in the atmosphere increase tenfold. He could now see that Nala, Tama, Kula, Malka, and Tojo were all glaring him down, ready to beat him within an inch of his life.

"You Dishonorable, Twisted, Lying piece of shit… You're going to pay for what you've done!" Tama said as she leaped out towards Chumvi, but before she could reach him Simba had moved in front of him and caught her midair, bring her down to earth rather gently.

"STOP!" Simba yelled out, catching everyone by complete surprise. He was standing up for the man who had tormented him and relentlessly bullied him his entire life. "If you strike him down… You'll be no different than him. Dishonorable and twisted" Simba said.

Sarafina had gotten up and was just about to jump in before Simba beat her to it. Sarafina was shocked by what he had done. He did the right thing. He didn't let his feelings impair his judgment. He did was any good king would do.

"He's right" Malka said. "We're not like him" He added. He was beyond angry with him but he knew that two wrongs didn't make a right. Tojo was crushed in the intense. He didn't want to believe what he was hearing, but at the same time, there was no doubt about what Chumvi had done.

"What have I done…" Tojo whispered to himself. The only person able to hear him was Kula, who was standing next to him. She felt bad that he was tricked like that. She knew what kind of person he was and knew that he had to feel horrible about what he had done.

Simba had turned around and was looking into Chumvi's eyes. He saw a part of him looking back at him and felt bad. He wanted to grant him mercy for his actions, but he knew that no lesson was to be learned from giving mercy to those who did not deserve it.

"I would leave if I were you," Simba said. He wasn't thinking about trying to hurt him or anything but he was not so sure about the people behind him. Without arguing or saying another word, Chumvi turned tail and ran through the bush.

Once he could no longer hear Chumvi running away, he felt angry at what had happened. "God Damn It!" Simba shouted simultaneously punching the ground as hard as he could. He wasted no more time and broke into a full sprint. Simba could hear Nala calling out from him, attempting to follow him but Simba knew that she was nowhere near fast enough to catch him. All Simba wanted was to be alone right now, and alone is where he would be.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

It had been over an hour now since Simba had taken off and no one had been successful in finding him. Nala was worried and just wanted to be there for him. She had successfully failed him by being unable to help him in a time like this.

Tama had wandered off a far ways from the rest of the group, losing hope that they were going to find him. She had already made up her mind that he was going to show himself when he wanted to, yet she knew Nala was going to nag her if she gave up.

"I probably shouldn't have run away like that" Simba said from being her, almost giving her a heart attack. Tama felt relieved when she found out it was Simba but then got irritated that he had bolted like that then startled her. Tama pounced on top of him and looked him in the eyes, her face hovering a mere inch or two away from his.

"Don't do that again" Tama said. Just then a huge boom of thunder erupted and a few raindrops started to drop. "Great, we're getting wet" Tama said. Simba then had a short series of flashbacks from when he was stuck outside in thunderstorms at his hideout, getting soaked as he watched lighting light the sky up above him, about found shelter in a cave.

"Come on, I know a place that's close" He said getting up and running towards the direction of the cave. Tama didn't really have a choice on the matter as the rain was starting to steadily pick up, and started to run off after Simba. Tama could start to make our the looks of a small cave om the top of a hill in the distance and was fortunate that he knew about it.

Not a few second after Simba and Tama entered the cave, the relentless torrent of water began to fall upon the earth. It was raining so hard that their visibility was limited to ten yards at the most from the mouth of the cave. Tama sighed knowing that they were going to be their a while and her mother would most likely ground her for worrying her half way to death.

Tama turned around and saw that Simba was already lying down trying to make himself comfortable. Tama sighed and decided to follow his lead and maybe try to talk to him about something, not that she knew what.

Simba had just laid down on his side when Tama laid down parallel to him, lying a mere few inches away from him and looked him the eyes. Simba could feel that nervous feeling in his chest the second he made eye contact with her. Sure she was his friend but just the fact that she was this close to him made him feel nervous.

"So, wanna talk?" Tama said. She wasn't tired and wanted to think of something else than the punishment she would receive for being caught out in this storm. She saw that Simba broke eye contact and looked as if he was thinking.

"Sure" He said making eye contact once more. Tama honestly thought he would say no and be awkward as usual. So that fact that he said yes made her now realized that she would need to find something he would be comfortable talking about.

"So uhh… what do you want to talk about?" Tama said. She kept finding her eyes wondering to a scar on the side of his rib cage and kept wondering how he got it. There were so many things about him that she wanted to know but respected his boundaries and wanted to make sure she wasn't rushing anything.

"Are we… friends?" Simba said kinda shy and awkwardly. The question took Tama completely by surprise as she had just assumed they would be at this point.

"Uhh, Yes?" She said hoping that was the answer he was looking for. She was relieved when she saw a slight smile form at the corner of his mouth upon hearing her answer and smiled a little herself. Tama was very lucky to have a friend like him. He was the only one she didn't need to act tuff or menacing around. She could just let her feelings go for the short periods of times they wear together and didn't have to worry about him judging her or anything.

"So uhh about earlier…" Simba said. He knew that she wanted to talk to him about it and didn't really know where to start. The one thing that Nala hadn't really shown him was how to actively engage in a conversation or how to really start one.

"Yea…" Tama said not really sure of where she was going to start. "Well… If you don't mind me asking… what was your past like…" Tama said cautiously. If Tama could only know one thing about Simba it would be his past. Simba was like a puzzle to her. She had all on corner and edge pieces, but she was missing the middle.

"Oh… I…" Simba said before stopping to think. Tama was someone he could trust and wasn't worried about her going around and telling everyone about his past. "Ok. But promise me that you won't tell Nala. It sounds strange but it's her mother's wishes that she doesn't find out… She's not ready" Simba said cringing a little.

"I promise" Tama said with a serious look. Even Tama had to admit she felt sorry for Simba and didn't want to hurt him and more than she may have already had in the past.

Simba took in a deep breath, preparing himself to tell her something he hadn't ever told another soul."Well… My father doesn't love me or want me around. I have no mom due to the fact that she passed away giving birth to me. You know both of those things. I grew up feeling really lonely due to the fact that no one ever wanted to play with me so I watched from a distance while you guys laughed and played games. I sorta found a solution which makes me sound crazy but I pretended to have friends of my own and would talk to myself pretending to be one of them with a different personality. These friends were made of stone or wood that I would carve in my endless amount of free time. I was bullied a lot as a kid, and no one ever stood up for me, not even myself, but that mainly stopped right before I met Nala. Growing up I never had a mother and had to teach myself by observing you and copying in a way. I was considered to be stupid due to the fact that I didn't know how to correctly speak and had a terrible grammar for a long time. I experienced a lot of physical pain, including cuts and several broken bones that I mostly healed on my own. I went to bed hungry a lot of the times because I was too afraid to go to pride rock when you guys were awake because I thought you would make fun of me, so I waited until it was late and ate whatever was left if there was anything left at all. Also until about two months ago, I had never had a real friend or even heard the words 'I love you'. I was angry a lot of the times but I resorted to running and pushing myself to the limits with cardio and other workouts like that. If you remember this mourning when I ran into you, I was actually out trying to run as fast as I can, putting all my anger into each stride as a way to vent it. I used to have nightmares every night, but recently I have nightmares about something else but less frequent. All in all, it sounds terrible, and for the most part, it was, but recently things have gotten better. I have Nala, you, Kula, and maybe Malka and Tojo will be my friends, although I'm not sure" Simba said only stopping a few times.

Tama was dumbfounded. She knew it was bad, but not… that bad. She could feel tears building up in the back of her eyes. Tears of guilt. The guilt of knowing that she was part of the reason he lived such a horrible life. "I'm so sorry" Tama said.

"It's ok. You changed and that's all that matters" Simba said putting on a smile to make her feel better. Tama was just surprised by no matter how bad Simba felt, he would do anything in his power to make other peoples days better, and yet they still bullied him and scared him for life.

"So could I maybe ask for some advice" Tama asked. All she got was a nod from him before continuing. "Don't get me wrong I love Malka, it's just he doesn't understand me, not as you understand me. I don't want to lose him but I feel like our relationship is slowly crumbling. Where always getting into arguments and I don't nearly spend as much time as I used to with him" Tama said.

"Tell him that. Tell him you love him and fear to lose him. Once he realizes that you need him and much as he needs you the arguing should stop and all should return to normal" Simba said hoping that's the answer she was looking for. Tama was surprised by what he said but it genuinely made sense and she couldn't find anything wrong with the plan.

"Umm… I have another question for you" Simba said. "Do you think that what we're doing is alright? I mean we are both seeing other people yet here we are is a deep conversation about one another" Simba said. He had almost no social skills so he was just about as good as dead to anyone when it came to relationships. Tama mentally chuckled at how oblivious he was to the terms friends.

"Simba it's ok. We're not doing anything inappropriate, and we're respecting each other boundaries. Besides this is what cubs do. Even though Malka is dating me he is allowed to show affection to Nala and Kula" Tama said chuckling a little. He was as big and strong as they came yet he was still clueless as could be.

"How?" Simba asked. He was always trying to increase his understanding on relationships and was trying to soak up just about any information that he could.

"Ya know, nuzzling occasionally." Tama said. She looked back at him and saw the look he was giving her. "What?" Tama said. He was looking at her as if she had a third eye.

"What's… Nuzzling?" Simba asked. The moment he saw her reaction he knew that he much have sounded incredibly stupid.

"You don't know what nuzzling is? I mean how? It's one of the top ways lions show affection for each other!" Tama said sitting up. Simba also sat up feeling embarrassed that he didn't know what it was.

"I was never shown affection when I was growing up. I mean I've kissed a girl, but I don't think I've ever nuzzled one before" He said unsure of what he was saying. He didn't even have the first clue as to what the word meant and was afraid he was using it in the completely wrong way.

"Well… it's like… uhh… Here let me show you" Tama said while getting up. Simba mirrored her until he was right in front of her. Tama slowly inched forward and started to rub her face up against his, and slowly worked her way down to his chest. She could smell Nala all over him, which was no surprise to her. She could feel that he was a soiled as a rock. She could only think of what he meant by cardio and working out.

Simba instantly realized that he had done this once before with Nala, just didn't know what to do. "I think I've done this before, just I never returned the gesture" Simba said feeling a little more confident now.

"Ouch… Ok well, now I want to know. What does your workout routine look like?" Tama said. She wasn't fancy on having her veins bulging like his but she was definitely curious how he packed on so much muscle at such a young age.

"Well… Seventy-five pushups, thirty pull up from a ledge near my place, climbing up and down a mountain which works the leg and core about… one hundred times or so, thirty minutes of non-stop running, then finally five minutes of full out sprinting" Simba said. He watched as Tama stood there frozen in place. He was unsure if he had said something that might have upset her but he was relieved a little when he saw her shake her head and come back to reality.

"Every day?" Tama asked. "Almost every day. Sometimes Nala makes it hard to sneak out" Simba said. Tama was just baffled by how he could do this every day. She could do around twenty push-ups, maybe four pull-ups, climb a mountain a few times. before passing out, and jog for like ten minutes tops before dying of exhaustion, and that was considered impressive for her age.

"Impossible" Tama said thinking that he was just messing with her. "I swear I'm not lying" Simba said. Tama took a good long look at him and had to admit that the evidence was all in front of her, yet she was still finding it hard to believe his god-like stats.

"Do seventy-five pushups right now" Tama said with a smirk. She was sure that he was going to tell her he was just joking, but she saw him get into stance and start doing one after another effortless she was back to being baffled. Tama was so surprised by the lack of effort he put into them that she had lost count of where he was.

"Ok ok, I get it" Tama said chuckling at how committed he was to it. "You're going to have to start training me from now on ok?" Tama said as a joke.

"Ok, what time works best for you?" Simba said completely missing the sarcasm in her voice. Tama just stared at him with a confused face for a few seconds before, confused that he had missed the sarcasm in her voice. finally speaking up.

"Whatever works best for you… I suppose…" Tama said.

The rain had caused the temperature to drop to around fifty degrees which was very cold in terms on a savannah. Simba was now starting to feel tired due to it being late and the cold temperature. Tama must have read his body language because he said anything she spoke up first.

"You look tired" She said teasing him. Simba only nodded along before returning to the spot he currently was in. He closed his eyes for what seemed like a minute before he felt Tama slide up next to him and snuggle into him a little.

"Tama what are you doing?" Simba asked unsure of what had gotten into her. Tama was a little surprised by his reaction seeing as he was the one who laid down first to get some sleep.

"What do you mean? I'm following your lead and trying to get some shut-eye" She before resting her head into his chest once more.

"I mean we can't sleep together. Won't that be… ya know… cheating?" Simba said. Tama rolled her eyes as he clearly had no idea how cubs normally slept.

"We do this all the time. All the cubs sleep in an area together. I've slept with Malka, Tojo, Chumvi, Nala, and Kula. It's called a pride for a reason" Tama said. Simba thought about what she had said and remember some very young flashbacks of his early cub days and saw something like that going on.

"Oh sorry… its just that… well, ya know… I never really slept with you guys before" He said chuckling to himself. All he got back was an 'ok good night' and left it at that. The only thing he was praying for was that he wouldn't have one of his world famous nightmares.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba shot up from his sleep with a rather menacing roar. Out of all the nights he had to have a nightmare, it had to be the night he was stuck in a cave with Tama do to a storm. Tama was abruptly woken when Simba had pushed off the ground and caused her to roll over.

She looked up at him to see that he had a hateful glare his face and was breathing heavily. Tama saw him more like some kind of monster than a person with the look he had on his face.

After a moment or two, his glare relaxed and he walk to the mouth of the cave where Tama could still see that is was raining. Tama slowly got up and started to approach Simba to find out what was the matter with him.

"Don't… just… don't…" Simba said as he looked over and put his paw up signaling her to stop approaching. Tama stopped in her tracks and felt sorry for him. He looked scared and angry and she could see that there was a war going on inside.

"Bad dream?" Tama said as she sat down, patiently waiting for him to calm down. She could see he was sweating heavily and shaking slightly. She'd never seen anyone react so harshly to a nightmare in her entire life.

"Yea" Simba said after a few more deep breaths. It was the same dream he'd always have where he ended up hurting someone that he cared about.

"What was it about" Tama asked hoping that he would take to her so she could maybe help him get over it faster.

"I…" Simba started but saw the look in Tamas' eyes and saw that she was only trying to help him. It was Something about the way she was looking at him that made him talk about what happened. "I hurt the people I care about" Simba finished.

Tama knew the person Simba was and knew that something like that was sure to bother him deep on the inside. "I don't think you're the kind of person to do something like that" Tama throwing him a little smile to help encourage him.

"You don't understand. I didn't just hurt them. I brutally and mercilessly slaughtered them. Every last one. I was a monster. I easily overpowered them and they were unable to fight back, let alone defend themselves. I can't even stand to trust myself around other people now. It's gotten worse since the first time we've met" Simba said while looking out of the mouth of the cave, not really being able to see anything as the rain still obstructed his view.

Tama sat there shocked at what he had just said. Tama knew the type of person Simba was and knew that he wasn't one to hurt anyone, and definitely not on to brutally and mercilessly slaughter people. "But why? You're nothing like that. So would you even begin to dream about something like that?" Tama asked. It just made no sense to her why he would fear becoming something that he couldn't even be compared to in the slightest way.

"I don't know. But what I do know is that I don't trust myself near Nala anymore. I fear that I'm going to snap and end up hurting her" Simba said.

Tama couldn't even begin to wonder what it would feel like to be afraid to be around someone that she loves so much just because she thinks she'll hurt her. "I don't know what to say" Tama said. "When you tackled me that one time… and you could have taken the killing the blow… why didn't you? Why didn't you end me when you had the chance to?" Tamas asked already knowing the answer but wanted him to think about it.

"Because I realized that it was wrong, and I stopped myself from doing something that wasn't like me" Simba said having already thought about it in the past.

"Exactly. When it came down to it you knew what was right and wrong. You did it with me, so you'll definitely be able to do it with her" Tama said now starting to approach Simba. Simba saw her attempt to move closer to him and backed out into the pouring rain, which was now easily a monsoon.

Simba instantly felt the freezing rain drench his body but didn't care, the fear of hurting her was much colder than the freezing rain. Tama followed him out of the cave to show that it was going to take more than some rain to escape from her.

Tama saw that his fur was now soaked and lying flat against his body, bringing out some newer muscles she hadn't noticed that wear hiding under his fur. She started to understand how he saw himself as a monster. He was able to overpower her easily and could have easily killed her if he so pleased.

Tama took one step forward and Simba took one step back. She tried again and he did the same thing. She tried once more but this time he slipped in the mud and fell down the hill.

Tama carefully ran to where he had just been standing and looked down. She could make out the looks of the hill the cave was on top of and saw that he was currently was trying to make his back up. Tama leaned down and reached her paw out for Simba to grab. Once Simba was close enough he jumped up and grabbed her paw so she could pull him.

The power of Simba jumping and Tama pulling and caused Simba to fly into Tama and cause her to lose balance due to the poor traction. Simba and Tama rolled over back into the cave, during the process Simba felt a sharp pain in his rib cage as he moved her around him so that he would take most of the impact.

Once inside the cave and out of the rain, Tama finally took a moment to close her eyes and let her adrenaline rush come down. A few seconds later she could smell the ever so sweet scent of blood in the air.

Tama scrambled to get up and checked herself to see if she was bleeding. She saw she had some blood on her arm but noticed that it wasn't hers. She heard a groan as Simba attempted to get back on his feet but collapsed in the process.

Tama ran over to him and could make out the sticky red substance on the cave floor. She looked at his chest and saw that there was a deep gash near his diaphragm. Tama started to panic, the wound was bleeding relentlessly and she didn't know the first thing about first aid. Tama knew that he would bleed out in minutes if she wasn't able to stop the bleeding.

Tama attempted to cover it with her paws but it didn't work, blood was still leaking out the side. "Simba… no no no no no" Tama said frantically as a few sobs escaped her mouth. Tama has already blamed herself for this accident due to the fact that she was the reason he backed up and ended up slipping in the process.

Tama was trying desperately to find a solution. The sounds of rains outside made it impossible to think. The darkness and tears in her eyes made it impossible to see. The rate of blood loss made it impossible to hope there would be any chance he would survive.

"I'm so sorry…" Tama said as everything she had done failed to work. Tama felt so pathetic that she couldn't help her friend and he was probably going to die because she was unable to do anything to stop the bleeding.

"Get a branch with leaves on it" Simba managed to say. Due to the location of the wound, every breath Simba took expanded the muscle around it created immense amounts of pain. While Tama was frantically trying to cover the wound Simba was thinking about how he was going to close it with his limited resources.

Simba swiftly brushed Tamas paw off with his and covered the wound with his own paw to help stop the bleeding. "Go!" He said biting down in pain. Without wasting another second, Tama ran out of the cave back into the rain where she found a branch on a tree with a decent amount of leaves.

On her way back in, Tama saw the amount of blood that was on the floor and knew Simba was going to need to get back to pride rock so they could properly seal the wound. Tama dropped the stick from her mouth beside Simba and waiting for his next instruction.

"Apply pressure" Simba said. "Go" he added and took his paw off and Tama put both of hers down with extreme haste. Simba gripped the top of the stick with one paw and moved his other paw down the stick pulling all the leaves off. Simba rolled all the leaves into a compacted ball that would clog the wound and stop the bleeding. It wouldn't last forever but would definitely do the trick for the time being.

"Ok… On the count of three… You're going to… Remove you paws so I can… pack the wounds with leaves to… slow the bleeding" Simba said through extreme pain. He was trying his hardest not to pass out from the pain and blood loss and just needed to pack the wound. Then he could pass out and would probably be ok.

Simba knew this next part would be the most painful and was mentally preparing himself. "One… Two… Three!" Tama moved her paws off the wound and Simba quickly slammed the ball of leaves into his wounds. He was unable to talk or move, as the pain from inserting the ball had caused his brain to basically overload.

Tama watch as the wound finally stopped bleeding and felt relieved. "It stopped. But what if you hit an artery or vein?" Tama asked worried that there may be internal bleeding.

"I didn't" Simba managed to say. The pain had died down enough to where he could finally manage to spit a few words out.

"How do you know?" Tama asked. There was no way for him to know whether he was internally bleeding or not and Tama wasn't about to take his word for it.

"Because if I had, I'd already be dead" Simba responded. Simba knew that he didn't hit anything important, and it was just a big cut due to the fact that he wasn't dead or coughing up blood. Tama was a little skeptical of his way of thinking but just wanted to make sure that his wound wouldn't start bleeding again.

"Now what?" Tama asked. She knew that his makeshift leaf ball wasn't going to last forever and they would have to remove it at some point to properly heal it, but it was still raining and wouldn't be safe to move right now.

"We wait. Then, need I dare say it… we head back to pride rock" Simba said. He didn't want to have to go anywhere near that place but he knew he was going to need proper medical treatment. Tama knew that he wouldn't want to go near that place but she knew that it was for the better if he did this one time.

"Ok… That sounds good" Tama said. At this point, her adrenaline was crashing and she felt very winded and sick to her stomach. All that commotion had drained her and she knew that the worst part would be walking the mile to mile and a half back to pride rock making sure Simba didn't hurt himself again.

"You should sleep. You're going to need your energy" Simba said. Tama just shook her head and couldn't begin to think how stupid of an idea that was.

"No. I need to stay awake in case your wound reopens or something" Tama said. She just saw him, shrug and close his eyes. She was surprised to see that he had just given up so easily and didn't even try to petition an argument.

Tama switched her gaze from Simba to the storm outside praying that it would let up so they could get him back to pride rock. All they could do now was wait for it to stop storming, and pray that nothing else went wrong.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

After around an hour or two, the rain had finally died off and the morning fog was starting to clear out increasing their visibility. The mourning sun was just above the mountains and illuminated the pride lands. It was finally time to head back to pride rock, the tricking parts being the mud, and making sure Simba's wound didn't reopen in the process.

"Simba?" Tama said as she gently nudged him with her muzzle. Tama then noticed that her paws were still covered with his blood. Tama then realized that it was going to be really fun to explain to her mother about what had happened and why her paws were soaking with the prince's blood. Simba's eyes cracked open and nodded. "It's time" Tama said motioning out towards the now somewhat blue skies.

Simba slowly got up and was able to do so without much pain. But when he moved his right leg, the side of his chest the wound was on, his chest muscle contracted and his wound stung like a wildfire. Luckily, Tama was there to catch him when he fell over and helped him get back on his feet.

It took Simba and Tama two minutes to make it thirty yards, and they still had over a mile left to go. Tama knew that it would take them all day at this rate, but she wasn't going to give up on her friend so easily.

One step after another they slowly but surely starting hacking away at the distance, both keeping their gazes fixed on pride rock, slowly watching it grow ever bigger as the minutes when by. They had made it a fifth of the way there before Simba was forced to stop. The pain in his chest was starting to get unbearable. The worst had to be the humidity. Water from the storm was quickly starting to evaporate in the savannah temperatures and the cubs were drenched in sweat, and the nearest pond was past pride rock, eliminating the option to cool off.

Tama was hoping that they would send a search party out for them and they would be found sooner or later. "I hope you know that they're not going to find us, which means we're going to be walking all day. My hideout is west, past pride rock, I ran east... Past pride rock which means if they are looking for us, they won't be looking in the right spot" Simba said as he tried to get up.

Tama moved over so he could lean on her and thought about what he had said. She knew that he was right, and he was realists and relied more on statistics than hoping for a miracle, but all Tama needed right now was a little hope and he certainly wasn't helping.

Tama and Simba both heard rustling in the bush near them. Simba and Tama knew that they would be no match for a fight in their current conditions, and we're trying to prepare themselves for whatever would come through that grass.

Malka had decided to look for Simba and Tama by going east, and when he heard some voices he just had to investigate. When Malka exited the tall grass and got on the trail Simba and Tama wear on, he was relieved to see that they were both there and appeared to be fine.

"Tama!" Malka said as he ran up to her and quickly nuzzled her. Malka was happy that he had been able to find her. He had been up all night and was worried something bad had happened to her.

"Malka, listen, Simba is hurt and we have no time for meet and greets. We have to get him to pride rock" Tama said trying not to totally reject his greeting. Malka looked down at Simba's chest and saw a large gash on it. He didn't know how they managed to stop the bleeding and how he could walk but he agreed, they had to get him to pride rock.

"Alright" Malka started to go ahead and clear out obstacles such as the grass and sticks and other fallen tree parts that had been knocked down in the storm. Malka knew that Simba had no idea what Nala had in store for him, and honestly felt bad. He kept thinking back to when Sarafina had to hold Nala back so she couldn't run out of the cave to look for him during the storm.

"Uhh Simba" Malka said decided to give him fair warning. He looked behind him to see that Simba was looking at him before continuing. "So uhh… Just wanted to warn you about Nala. She's really worried about you and she's gonna go crazy when she sees your condition… so just heads up" Malka added.

Simba knew that Nala would most likely react like that and was just hoping she wouldn't, but now he knew he was right all along. "Great" He sarcastically responds. Malka felt a little bad for Simba, apart from all the other stuff, that he had to deal with Nalas overprotective state on a daily basis and was thankful Tama wasn't like that.

The three cubs could now see that they had made decent progress in the past hour and they would most likely arrive at pride rock around noon. It was amazing at how much one person affected the workload. The problem at first was that Simba couldn't step over obstacles and had to stop frequently, but now that Malka was there, they were making steady progress.

"Alright, that's the last of the obstacles from here to pride rock. I'm going to run ahead and get help. We were going to return at noon if no one found you guys to form a new plan to locate you, so everyone should already be there" Malka said as he took off towards pride rock. Simba just stopped moving and went to sit down. Tama moved over so he could do so without knocking her over in the process.

Tama was relieved that the storm and the entire situation they were in was over. She was happy that they had made it back to pride rock and Simba was still alive. Then her thoughts drifted towards Chumvi, and how much she wanted to get even with him.

She had a pretty good idea he was going to be inside pride rock and how she was going to deal with him, because if you think about, technically speaking, this entire thing was all his fault. And that was just one more reason to get even with him.

It wasn't long before Simba and Tama could make out Malka, Tojo, Kula, Nala, Sarafina, and another lioness running down from pride rock and headed their way. Simba and Tama looked at each other with a look of farewell, knowing that this whole thing was over and that for the first time in over twelve hours, things would take a turn for the better.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Once Simba got back to pride rock, Rafiki, a… interesting baboon, or mandrill, used some weird plant juice and leaf to clean and heal the wound, and use a porcupine needle and some tightly woven twine to close the would. Nala had been bombarding Simba with questions the entire time and wouldn't leave his side, no matter what.

It was up to Sarafina to keep Nala from putting to much stress on Simba. Nala's overprotective state was working in overdrive due to the fact that during the entire process of healing his wounds he was hissing and was in excruciating pain.

Once Rafiki was done, he let Nala visit Simba, and walked up to Sarafina and patted her shoulder once more for taking up the responsibility of raising the future king. Rafiki was starting to think the pride lands would be in serious trouble but was thrilled when he found out that the prince had returned.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

It was currently late at night and Simba couldn't get any sleep. He decided that he needed to take a walk, and slowly, and extremely carefully made his way out of pride rock. The most intense part was when he was passing by his father in the center. The man responsible for everything.

Once outside, Simba felt as if he was free again. Something about being inside that cave made him feel like a prisoner. It was weird to think that a prince would feel like a prisoner in his own home, but still, he did.

Simba could walk a lot easier now and didn't need anyone to lean on, but he still didn't want to stay out too long because if Nala caught him… well, he didn't want to think about what would happen. Simba slowly to the tip of pride rock and looked out in the direction of his hideout.

To the untrained eye, it would be impossible to see. The tall grass and underbrush made it extremely hard to identify. But Simba had spent his entire life there, and would never forget the sight of it.

Part of him wanted to venture there, but he knew that it was too far and too risky to travel that distance in his current condition, and he didn't have much time before Nala would inevitably wake up to check on him.

Sarafina was watching Simba from the very top of pride rock (The 'Everything the light touches' spot) watching Simba. She had been up all night thinking of how she was going to prepare him to be king with his new injury.

Simba was still young, but it would take him at least a year until he was ready to lead this pride, and they didn't have any time to be wasting. Sarafina sighed knowing that there was nothing that she could have done. She could break up a fight or put someone on the right path, but there was nothing she could about the weather.

Inside the cave, Tojo had woken up briefly, as he normally did sometimes throughout the night, and noticed that Simba was no longer where he used to be. Tojo looked around and saw that he wasn't even in the cave.

Tojo looked towards the entrance and saw that Simba was outside, starring off towards the western border of towards the western part of the pride lands. Tojo quietly snuck out of pride rocks and trotted up beside him.

Simba had heard him approaching and knew that he had probably stayed out longer than he should have. "What are you doing out here?" Tojo whispered.

"I can't sleep" Simba whispered back. Tojo understood that Simba would have a hard time trying to sleep in pride rock. This was the place that was associated with everything bad in his life.

"Sorry to hear that" Tojo said not knowing what else to say. It was nearing dawn and other people would start to wake up soon to go on hunts and patrols. Simba was contemplating how he was going to avoid the mourning rush, seeing at it would be strange for him to randomly show up after being gone his entire life.

The worst was his father. Mufasa hadn't noticed him in the cave when he walked in, but would most certainly notice him when he woke up. "So guess you're not going back to sleep?" Tojo said after a while of them sitting in complete silence.

"No, I'm going to head out now" Simba said as he got up and slowly started to make his way down the hill leading up to pride rock. Tojo knew that Nala would kill him if she found out he let him go alone without stopping him and quickly got up and went after him.

"You can't go alone" Tojo said as he trotted in front of Simba and blocked his way. Simba was appreciative that Tojo cared enough to try to stop himself from possibly further injuring himself but Simba was still not going to stop.

"Not to sound rude, But I can, and I will" Simba said as he moved around him and continued on his way. Tojo started to get a little irritated due to the way Simba was acting.

"Fine. I'll get Nala up and she can walk with you" Tojo said. Inside his head, Tojo was smirking at what he had said. It wasn't that Simba was trying to avoid Nala, but he just wanted some time to himself.

Simba stopped turned around to look back at Tojo. "Why are you doing this?" Simba said. Not to make Tojo sound bad but he never cared about who Simba was or what he did, so what was so different now.

"Because we're friends" Tojo said. Simba was surprised that Tojo had already considered him a friend, and this was the first time he had talked to him since… ever.

"Fine. Go get her" Simba said. He watched as Tojo turned around and walked back inside pride rock. He though for a moment to use this time to run and hide, but remembered that he couldn't really run, and had only fifteen seconds at the most to do so.

Fifteen seconds later, as predicted, Simba saw Nala trotting out of the cave towards him. Nala smiled at Simba and Simba gave her a little smile back. Nala could tell by the way he was acting that something was bothering him.

"Come on, let's head to your place" Nala said as she walked by him, giving him a small little nuzzle. Simba returned the gesture and turned around to start following her.

Tojo watched how Nala nuzzled Simba and felt a little sad. He knew that Nala had chosen Simba, and not him, but it was her choice and wasn't his place to get involved.

Simba could see from the corner of his eye that Nala was watching him very intently in case he was going to trip or stumble. He knew that she had every right to worry but it was just that he wasn't used to anybody caring for him when he was hurt, do to the fact that not that long ago no one cared about him at all.

"So I've been thinking" Nala said looking over a Simba. "We need to name your place something" Nala said. Simba had never really thought about naming his place and wondered why it needed a name, to begin with.

"Why?" Simba asked. Nala rolled her eyes and knew that he would probably question why it needed a name. Nala thought to herself that she was going to need to sit down with him sometime and just go over basic social skills that he was going to have to master at some point.

"Because we need to call it something. Now that the other cubs know you and may visit you from time to time, we're going to need to call it something" Nala said. Simba didn't even think of the fact that the other cubs would try to visit go throughout the day and realized that friendship wasn't everything that it seemed to be.

"How about we just refer to it as the hideout?" Simba said giving it little thought, seeing as that's all it ever was, a hiding place from the pain and bullying. Nala decided that it worked and smiled knowing that it finally had a name.

"Umm… question" Simba said. Nala was finally satisfied that he was going to be the first one to start talking at some point during that trip. "Yes?" She responded.

"Is nuzzling another lion, especially a female lion, while you're in a relationship, a bad thing?" Simba asked. He knew that Tama said it was ok but wanted to make she that he didn't accidentally do something that would upset Nala.

"Why?" Nala asked a little suspiciously. Nala normally wouldn't care who nuzzled who, but she didn't really like the idea of sharing Simba either.

"Well during the storm Tama and I took shelter in a cave and well… she kind of taught me how to nuzzle, and told me it was ok as long as it wasn't too serious or anything" Simba said hoping it wouldn't anger her.

Nala knew that she shouldn't let her feelings interfere with what Simba was allowed to do and felt that it was ok. "As long as it isn't serious I don't mind, what else did you do with her?" Nala asked starting to get jealous.

"I told her a story, explained my workout routine and then we fell asleep. So nothing too serious" Simba said. Nala was a little irritated before, now she was royally pissed. Nala didn't like the idea of Simba sleeping with the other girls his age one bit. Nala knew that she was probably overreacting but there was no way and hell she was going to stand by while other females could potentially take Simba away from her.

"You slept with her?!" Nala said in an angry voice. Simba immediately knew that he had done something seriously wrong and feared that he might have just done something that would screw him over for a long time.

"Well… yea…" Simba said hoping the truth would save him. It didn't. Nala felt the jealousy in her skyrocket as he confirmed that he did.

"Why?!" Nala responded in an even more angry tone than before. Simba didn't really know why he had besides the fact that Tama said it was normal, but then he realized that people's definitions of normal varied a lot.

"Well, she said that it was normal and that cubs slept together all the time" Simba said in a nervous tone. Nala then realized that Simba was right, even she had slept up against other males in the past, but that didn't make the jealousy inside die down one bit. "Why is it such a big deal? I wasn't cheating on you or anything" Simba said. Big mistake.

"Why do I care?! I care because I love you!" Nala said letting her anger get the best of her. Nala was so furious about the comment, that she raised her paw in the air getting ready to strike him in the head, but stopped when she saw his reactions. He was looking down slightly flinching and had his eyes closed, waiting for the blow to land, not making any attempts to stop it.

Nala lowered her paw and felt bad about what she had done. Simba opened his eyes a few seconds later to see why he hadn't been hit yet and saw that Nala was looking down at the ground with a guilty expression.

"I didn't mean that. I'm sorry" Simba said. He truly didn't mean it so bluntly, he just wanted to know why she was overreacting so much, and just worded it completely wrong. Nala looked up to see that Simba was now looking at her and had to look away so the guilt wouldn't continue to build up.

"I'm sorry. I'm just afraid of losing you. First the storm, and then this, it's just all impairing my judgment" Nala said. "I know how you feel" Simba said giving her a small smile to let her know she wasn't the only one who was afraid of losing the other. Nala returned the smile and leaned into his chest nuzzling him.

She was slightly disturbed that he smelled a lot like Tama and that it confirmed his story that he had slept with her, but Nala didn't care. It wasn't anything she couldn't fix in less than five minutes.

Nala got a little carried away and started to nuzzle him a bit more furiously to the point where she knocked him off balance and he landed on his bad side, releasing a hiss of pain. Nala quickly helped him back up and brushed him off. She didn't mean to do it and was kind of embarrassed that she had gotten that carried away.

"We should probably continue on" Nala said as she refused to make eye contact and starting walking down the trail. Simba found it funny that she was acting nervous around him, something that he rarely ever got to see. Simba started to follow Nala down the trail, replaying the memory of her acting nervous in front of him, knowing that it would serve a good laugh or two in the future.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Chumvi was currently making his way towards Malka, Tojo, Tama, and Kula. He had come up with a long apology over the past day and was hoping that they would consider accepting him back as a friend. Also, it just happened that Chumvi had some trouble staying all by himself for one night… Boo hoo.

Tama was the first to notice that Chumvi was walking their way. Tama's mood change was enough to get everyone else attention and not long after the atmosphere was so thick of hatred that you could almost smell it. Chumvi felt nervous as he approached them, being able to tell that they were still livid with his actions.

Chumvi stopped when he saw Tama get up and give him a look to tell him not come any closer. Chumvi decided to push his luck and complied with her warning. Chumvi had recited his apology over and over out loud and in his head, but now that he was here and about to do it, he felt his courage start to drain.

"Ummm… So I would like to make an apology. I have come to know that what I did was terribly wrong and I truly feel sorry. I know that asking for forgiveness is a lot to ask for and maybe I shouldn't be asking for it to begin with. But after spending one night in the wilderness without anyone there I now know how Simba felt and like I said, I feel truly terrible and sorry. So I've come here to ask for forgiveness and start over as a new cub" Chumvi said managing to sound confident and not stutter.

Upon hearing this, Tama's anger exploded and there was nothing Malka could do at this point to calm her down, everyone just had to get out of the way and pray she wouldn't come after them. "How dare you ask for forgiveness! And how dare you say you know how Simba felt! You spent one night alone, Simba spent almost seven months alone without anyone there who even cared if he lived or die! You truly disgust me and I would love to beat the ever loving crap out of you right now but I know that's not what Simba would want. So I don't ever want to hear that you understand the pain Simba had to endure. Come back in seven months and then we'll talk! Now leave." Tama yelled.

"She's right. And if anything you need to apologize to Simba, not us" Tojo said calmly. He was stilled mad at Chumvi, yet he still had the self-control to not explode and yell as Tama did.

Chumvi was shocked that she was still so violent after his 'sincere' apology. He looked from face to face to see if anyone had accepted his apology or was thinking of forgiving him, and was nervous to see that everyone was looking the same way at him as Tama was. Chumvi felt hopeless in that instant. He couldn't do it. He couldn't go through what Simba had to go through, it was just impossible.

Chumvi felt so weak in that instant and contemplated whether or not he should just give up and try to find a new pride that would accept him if the alpha male didn't kill him first. Chumvi hung his head low as he turned around and retreated in the bush. He knew that he had messed up but at least thought they would show mercy when he never showed any to Simba.

Far off in the distance, Sarafina was smirking as the reality of his actions had finally set in. She smirked knowing that he would struggle now knowing that everything wasn't going to be handed to him on a silver platter. She knew that he was going to be in for one hell of a ride, and was satisfied that justice had finally found him.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba and Nala had been laying around the hideout for most of the day, having done nothing but small talk here and there. "Why don't we ever do something. It seems like we always lie around here all day and do nothing" Simba said. Nala hadn't thought about it before, but he made a point. They never played games or went around exploring the pride lands. All they ever did was waste time messing around at the hideout.

"I'm not sure, but what I am sure of is that you're really not in any condition to be playing games or free roaming the pride lands" Nala said. Simba figured she was going to say that. He knew that it was partly true, but at the same time, it was annoying that the next week or so would be very boring.

"Well, what should we do if we can't do anything in the pride lands?" Simba asked. Nala was dry on ideas and realized that there really wasn't really anything the two could do until Simba got better.

"Wanna just chat?" Nala said. Chatting was really the only thing they could do seeing that almost everything else involved in roaming around the pride lands for a good while.

"That's what we always do" Simba said further proving his point. Nala knew that he was right and even had to admit that she could get really bored at times. "Anyway, I was wondering about Kula, why has she been acting strangely as of recently?" Simba asked. He had noticed that Kula was looking a little down and wasn't acting like she normally did.

Nala was a little fed up with Simba talking about other girls but decided to roll with it. "Well she had a tiny crush on Chumvi until she found out who he really was, and she's just a little upset" Nala said. Simba didn't feel easy knowing that other people were feeling down due to his personal matters, and felt as if he needed to do something.

"Do you think I should talk to her?" Simba said. Nala was still irritated about the whole Tama thing and just wanted Simba to talk about something other than the other female cubs. Nala knew that he probably should but at the same time, she really didn't want competition. Now that Chumvi was off the list, and Kula thought Simba was cute, she didn't want Kula to get any ideas.

"Sure" Nala said a little irritated. Simba heard the irritation in Nala voice and felt bad. Simba got up and walked over to where Nala was, who was now looking him in the eyes. Simba slowly lowered his head down and placed a reassuring kiss on her check telling her that it was going to be fine.

Nala moved her head and captured Simba in a rather passionate kiss that lasted a few seconds. Nala was enjoying it when suddenly Simba ripped away from her and turned around. Nala was shocked by what he had done and knew that something was seriously bothering him by the way he was acting.

"Simba what's wrong?" Nala asked in a worried tone. She could see that he was looking at the ground, thinking intently about something.

"I… I don't… It's just that the more I love you the more it hurts, and I don't know why! I barely sleep, and when I do I'm haunted by the same nightmare day and night, and no matter what I do I can't be at peace for just five seconds!" Simba said in despair. Nala could literally feel physical pain in her chest upon hearing him.

"Simba" Nala said as she walked up next to him. She looked into his eyes and saw someone who was lost. "Simba, you can tell me anything. What ever's bothering you, don't let it be a burden" Nala said pressing up against him.

"It just that I always dream I lose you. I always dream that I'm the one who kills you in cold blood. And every night I fear to go to bed because I always have to see that look on your face as I viciously attack and slaughter you. It's gotten so bad that I made your mother promise to kill me if I ever tried to hurt anyone like that! I just can't keep going on like this. You can make fun of me or bully me as much as you want, but nothing has ever hurt more than this" Simba said.

Nala felt lightheaded upon hearing this. She felt so many emotions that she was having a hard time keeping her own balance. She felt so responsible for his pain, and to the point where he promised her own mother to kill him if he tried to hurt her, made here fell all the more guilty.

"You made my mother… Promise… To kill you?" Nala said in disbelief, hoping that she had just heard him wrong.

"Yes" Simba said feeling a little ashamed that he did that. Nala was trying her best to hold back her tears but yet a few still came out. Simba looked over to see that Nala had a few tears running down her face, and knew that his plans to prevent hurting her had just hurt her in another way.

"I love you, So much. And I'm scared. And I don't know what to do and It's driving me insane" Simba said. Nala had heard enough and needed to set some things straight that she had thought he had already known.

Despite Simba's injury, Nala tackled him onto the ground and locked her lips with his. Simba felt the fear start to return, but something about the moment just made him let go, and for the first time in a few weeks, he truly felt at peace.

Whatever plans they had to talk to Kula were over, and anything they wear thinking of doing after that was completely forgotten.

The two lovers spent the rest of the day showing just how much they loved the other. Nuzzling, Kissing and Playing. Neither Simba or Nala cared about what was going on around them, all they cared about was that they loved their mate and their mate loved them.

Sarafina watched from a distance as the romance unfolded, and turned away, giving the two lovers their privacy, for she had more important matters. It was time that she would confront Chumvi, and show him a little more… In-Depth what his punishment had to offer. For reconciliation… was not going to be an immediate option…

 **Awww… So sweet that Simba and Nala love each other so much 3. Then I through in that dark ass scene at the end just to kill the mood and trip ya up. Dang was this story long! 24 pages in the google doc! Longest story I've ever written by far. So the reason I made this one so long was as a holiday treats for Y'all. So if you liked this story then comment what you want next! And if you absolutely despised it and think it deserves to burn in hell than comment that as well. (Desperate for comments) So as a said at the beginning, there will be a chapter 6, not sure when but I promise I'll post it. To be 100% with Y'all… this is going to be one long story, probably 10-15 chapters. And I promise not to let it die. So that's really all I gotta say for this chapter, so with all that out of the way, Happy Holidays Y'all! Mr_Toast out!**


	6. Second Chance

**Simba's Pain Chapter 6**  
 **Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back! Hope Y'all had a great Christmas because I sure did. So I'd like to thank MachineDragonNero and Kamari11 for all the great Ideas. So this Chapter won't be as long as the previous chapter but make no mistake, it will have some action of its own. As always if you guys have some ideas you'd like to share, write a comment or PM me saying what it is and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. With all that stuff out of the way, Enjoy!**

It had been around a week and a half since Simba had sustained the injury to his chest, and was currently walking to his hideout after being cleared by Rafiki that he was good to go. Simba had no idea what that weird plant juice that baboon had used but it worked like magic.

Simba was ready to begin his workouts again and do all the things he had missed in the past week or so. Simba was nearing his hideout and could see that Malka and Tama were inside, and looked as if they were waiting for him.

Simba entered the hideout and both Tama and Malka looked up at him. "Anything I can do for you?" Simba asked unsure why their visit was so unexpected.

"Here to see if you would keep your promise" Tama said with a smile. Tama had heard that Simba had been cleared and was ready for him to train her, and for her to show him fighting styles. Simba was confused as he remembered all the promises he made, but couldn't remember what she was talking about.

"What promise?" Simba asked. Tama rolled her eyes and should have remembered that boys intellect prevented them from remembering anything besides food and sleep.

"You promised me that you'd start training me with your workout, and I was supposed to show you some fighting styles that you would need to know for when you'd become king" Tama said. Simba's brain lit up as he finally remembered what promise she was talking about.

"Well I don't remember it being a promise, but nonetheless I can do that. So when do you want to start?" Simba asked. Tama rolled her eyes again at how precise Simba had to act at times.

"How about now?" Tama asked. Tama was still young and had no responsibilities that the older lioness had, so she had all the free time in the world as of right now. Simba was surprised that she would say right now, but then again he also had nothing else to do himself and decided to roll with it.

"Sure. But what about him?" Simba said as he motioned towards Malka.

"I dragged him along so he could keep me company while we waited" Tama said. It was then that Simba realized that he had been gone for around two to three hours, and they had probably been waiting the entire time.

"Sorry to keep you waiting" Simba said as he turned around. "Let's go" He called from over his shoulder. Tama looked over at Malka and saw him motion for her to go on. Tama trotted up beside Simba, preparing herself for what he called a workout.

Simba and Tama had been walking for about five or so minutes when they reached a ledge, and a dirt wall that had unusually creators in it. "We're here" Simba said as he looked around to see the place where he always spent the early mourning hours training.

"So pushups?" Tama said recalling him saying that's where he started.

"Yup… Seventy-five" Simba said. Tama shook her head when he said that, knowing that she wouldn't be able to do that many. "Don't worry, you'll get stronger" Simba said as if being able to read Tama's thoughts.

Simba got in position and waited for Tama. Tama got in position in front of him and waited for his next instructions. "Alright, One push up is all the way down, and back up. You want your chest to touch the ground, but don't rest it on the ground. And keep your arms tucked to your side." Simba said as he did one.

Tama wasn't expecting him to do them using proper form and expected him to do the ones where you didn't go all the way down and had your arms out the side slightly. Tama started to do them at a steady pace and watched as Simba mirrored her pace. Tama was at eighteen and started to give up.

"Come on two more" Simba said motivating her to reach twenty, which is what he expected her to be able to do. Tama able to do that last two and collapsed on the ground, her chest feeling as if it was on fire.

"Nice!" Simba said as he started to finish the remaining fifty-five. Tama watched as he started to knock them out effortlessly without out breaking form and keeping a steady pace. Once Simba was done he got back up without collapsing as Tama had done.

"Alright, Now the pull-ups" Simba said. He looked over at Tama and saw that she was looking at him in disbelief. "What?" Simba asked a little weirded out by the look she was giving him.

"I didn't believe you at first" Tama said chuckling a little. Simba also laughed a little and they both walked towards the ledge.

Five pull-ups, two trips up and down a mountain, a steady ten minutes of jogging, and a training lesson on some more advanced fighting styles, Tama was beyond exhausted. There was no way she could do this every day and just continued to wonder how Simba could.

"Hey, It's getting dark, we should probably head back soon" Simba said. Tama hadn't even been keeping track of what time it was and realized that they had spent half the day doing what only took Simba and hour to do.

"You go. I'll catch up later" Tama said in an exhausted tone. Simba nodded and turned away to head back to his hideout. After around five minutes of pure rest, Tama was finally ready to head back to pride rock, and get some much-needed sleep.

"Impressive Isn't he?" A voice called out from behind her. Tama had probably jumped so high being startled like that, that she could have set a new record for high jumping. Tama turned around to face whoever had been clearly stalking her and was surprised to see that Sarafina was standing behind her.

"Uhh.. who?" Tama asked surprised to see that Sarafina had been stalking her. Tama was always prepared for a fight and was always checking to make sure that no one was following her, yet here was Sarafina, who had been stalking her for who knows how long.

"Simba. Impressive Isn't he. I wouldn't think that someone his age would have the physical endurance he has to do that workout almost every day" Sarafina said testing Tama. Tama had to admit that she was right. She had no idea how he was able to do something like that every day.

"Yea... you're right..." Tama said wondering where Sarafina was going with this whole thing. "So why were you watching me?" Tama asked cautiously.

"I wasn't watching you, I was watching Simba" Sarafina said turning around and heading into the bush. Curiosity got the better of Tama and she just wouldn't let the conversation die there.

"Wait!" Tama called out. Sarafina had been waiting for Tama to call out and smiled knowing that she had once again pulled off another successful part of her plan. It sounded creepy that she spent so much time watching the cubs, but the only reason that she did was that she swore she wouldn't let Sarabi down, and she was going to need ever cub to play a key role in changing Simba in order to prepare him to be a king.

"Yes?" Sarafina said as she re-emerged from the bush, pretending to be intrigued by Tama's request.

"Why are you watching Simba?" Tama asked. Sarafina basically already knew the conversation they were going to have before they even had it. She was just that good at reading people.

"Because. He might be strong but he will always need someone there. You might not realize it yet, but if something happened to Simba, who would become king?" Sarafina said imposing a question she knew Tama couldn't answer.

"Then either Malka, Tojo or… Chumvi would become king?" Tama said cringing slightly as she said Chumvi's name. It was an obvious question, but she lacked to see the deeper meaning of it.

"Yes, but deciding which one of the three would take up the position of king, would cause anarchy and the ultimate downfall of the pride lands. That's the flaw of our government. With no one selected to succeed Simba right now, it would destroy the pride from the inside out" Sarafina said with a rather stoic tone, making it sound almost as if it wasn't a big deal.

Tama was still young and didn't fully understand how complicated a government was, and it had finally hit her why everything was happening the way it was. "So that why you're keeping such a close eye on him! So that he would be fit to rule one day, and that the pride lands wouldn't go into anarchy?" Tama asked making sure she was following along with what was going on.

"Yes. Simba is the heir to the throne, and when the time comes for him to become king, he must be ready, Or else the disorder will cause civil war upon who will be declared the next king, and the pride as we know it, with crumble…" Sarafina said.

Tama honestly didn't know what to say, but Sarafina had one more thing to drop on the cub. "So far everything's gone according to plan, the plan I came up with a few months ago. You have started training him. Kula will help him become more social, as she is doing right now. Nala will help him through his darkest times. Malka has already proven that loyalty is stronger than deception, and Tojo has shown him that just because a person has done some bad things, doesn't mean that's who they truly are on the inside. Chumvi, Chumvi will show Simba that he is strong and that he can overcome the obstacles life throws at him" Sarafina said.

Tama didn't even know where to start. Sarafina had basically told her what was going on right now and how she had planned for it to happen months ago and didn't even need to set it in motion. It was as if she was in control of destiny. "How… How did you know that we were going to help him like that? We never told anyone… and you said you planned this before we even talked about it among ourselves?" Tama asked completely shocked.

"Because you're all too predictable" Sarafina said, admitting that her methods were rather basic. Tama just shook her head a turned around, leaving it at that. She didn't know how much more she could have taken before she would have past out.

Sarafina was satisfied with their conversation and was expecting Tama to walk away like that. Now that Tama knew, she would tell the others, and soon it would dawn upon all of them the seriosity of the situation they were in, all of which, she had already planned…

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was currently sleeping in his hideout, or pretending to be, listening to Nala… attempting… to sneak up on him, trying not to wake him up. He thought that is was nice of her to not wake him up, but he was probably the lightest sleeping in all of the pride lands.

"You don't need to do that, I was never asleep" Simba said startling Nala. Nala saw how peaceful he looked and could have sworn that he was asleep, but then like all the other times she had to remind herself, he wasn't a peaceful sleeper.

"Oh" Nala said a little embarrassed she didn't notice. "So if you weren't sleeping then what were you doing, and where have you been all day?" Nala asked as she walked over to check on his wound, and was surprised to see that it was healed and wasn't wrapped.

"I was thinking about something Kula told me. And I was with Tama for most of the day and then spent the remainder of my evening with Kula" Simba said still lying down without opening his eyes. Nala once again got jealous at the thought of Simba with either Kula or Tama but pushed it away knowing he deserved freedom.

Nala didn't like that fact that she felt jealous when he was around them. Tama and Kula were like sisters to her, and they would never go behind her back like that. Yet she just got a strange feeling every time he was with them.

"Ok… well can we do something together tomorrow, and what did Kula tell you?" Nala asked curiously.

"I'm going to pretty busy tomorrow. I'm going to see Kula early tomorrow morning. Then around noon Tama will give me another fighting lesson. Then I'm going to go see Kula again, all in all taking up the entire day. Oh, and your mother wanted to talk to me" Simba said cringing when he said 'mother'. "And Kula told me she could help me become more socially outgoing, and I'm just reflecting on my social skills" Simba replied honestly.

Now Nala was seriously jealous. He had spent all day with Tama today and was going to spend almost all day tomorrow with Kula. "Well can I tag along?" Nala said in a rather jealous tone, and completely disregarding the part where he was talking about what Kula had said and about needing to talk to her mother, which Simba picked up on.

Simba knew that he was going to be occupied during the day, and Nala would most likely find what he was doing to be boring, but nonetheless wanted nothing more than to make her happy. "Sure" Simba said. Nala smiled, she was hoping that she wasn't going to have to rely on her terrible stalking skills to follow them all day just to settle her nerves.

With all of that said, the two cubs were ready for sleep and Simba was ready to finally relax after a hard days work.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba and Nala had woken up early the next mourning and were making their way to an area near the waterhole that Simba said Kula would be. Nala still wasn't very fond of the idea of Simba spending this much time with Tama or Kula, but no matter what she did she just wouldn't stop being jealous.

Kula had been waiting for them where she said she would be and smiled when she saw Simba turn the corner but was a little confused when she saw Nala turn the corner as well. "Hey Simba" Kula said as she gave him nothing more than a friendly nuzzle that lasted not even a second. "Hey Nala" Kula said as she went to give her a friendly nuzzle as well but saw that she had a rather unamused face on, and Kula just attempted to ignore her glare but noticed that it followed her wherever she went.

"Alrighty! So you ready?" Kula asked Simba who was just standing there waiting for something to happen.

"Ready, as I'll ever be" Simba said sounding a bit nervous, knowing that he had no social skills and had no idea what he was going to be getting himself into.

"Ok so lesson one" Kula said looking past Simba over at Nala, who still seemed unhappy. "Games. Games are a way that we have fun, and be able to get know each other better. One of my favorite games is pinned ya. Goes something like this" Kula said smirking as she got ready to pounce on Simba. Kula pushed off the ground and went flying towards Simba, expecting to be able to turn him over and pin him, but just ran straight into him, and then bounced right back off.

Kula got back up, feeling as if she had just run headfirst into a wall. "Wow…" Kula said not expecting Simba to be that hard to move. Simba was just looking at Kula in a confused way, wondering why she had just basically leaped into his chest and bounced back off.

"Ok well, what was supposed to happen is that you would flip over and I would pin you on your back. Then I would say 'Pinned ya!' When you were on your back and unable to get back up" Kula said trying to make sense of why he was as hard as a rock. Kula looked over to see that Nala was still looking pretty unhappily towards her, and felt a bit uncomfortable at this point.

"Ok well the other game is called tag but I'm going to guess that you're already faster than me" Kula said not wanted to embarrass herself in front of him again. "Lesson two. Getting to know someone. Getting to know someone is really important, and will probably be one of your weakest points. Now, ask me a question pretending that I was someone you didn't know" Kula said wanted to see how advanced he was in this skill already.

Simba just stared at Kula completely confused. She wasn't kidding when she said this would be one of his weakest points. Kula just stood there waiting for him to say or do just about anything, but was a little surprised when she saw him stand there with his trademark confused face.

"Ok… well, that's a problem" Kula said giggling. Kula looked over Simba's shoulder once more to see that Nala was still glaring at her, but her expression had softened just a hair. "Ok so the first thing you should ask someone is their name. Like so. 'Hi, I'm Kula. What's your name?'" Kula demonstrated. Simba just gave her a shy nod in acknowledgment.

"Then you can ask things like 'What's your favorite game?', 'What do you do in your free time' or 'How old are you?'. Stuff like that basically. Starting a conversation is the hardest thing due to the fact that once it gets going it just starts to flow, but getting it to flow can be tricky at times" Kula said reassuring him that it wasn't going to be too hard.

"Alrighty. Lesson three. Bonding" Kula said. When Kula looked over Simba's shoulder and saw Nala's face expression, she knew that Nala wasn't liking where this was starting to go. "Simba, Could you please give Nala and I a moment?" Kula asked sweetly, seeming to irritate Nala even more.

Simba just nodded and walked into the tall grass. Nala started to approach Kula with her still rather pissed off face, and Kula gave her a nervous smile. "So…" Kula started not sure what Nala was trying to pick with her.

"So…" Nala replied back. Kula started to feel that she had done something to aggravate Nala, but hadn't said anything to her all day.

"Look, whatever you're mad about, I'm sorry if I had anything to do with it. It's just that I can't really focus on teaching Simba anything if you keep glaring at me" Kula said rather rushed.

"Just don't make any moves on Simba" Nala said more hostile than attended. It dawned upon Kula that at that moment, Nala was jealous that Simba was spending time with other females. Kula started to feel the urge to giggle but didn't dare seeing how Nala was already taking the situation.

"I would never. You're with Simba, and as your friend, I completely respect that" Kula said showing that she was still a loyal friend.

"Thanks, it's just that-" "SHH!" Nala was saying before Kula hushed her rather harshly. Nala was once again a little angry by what Kula had done. "Do you hear that?" Kula said it a quite and concerned voice.

Nala intently listened for a few seconds and heard was sounded like barking and howling. Only one animal made those noises. Hyenas…

"Hyenas…" Nala responded. It was bad news that they were half a mile away from pride rock and there were hyenas around. They were still cubs and not fully grown, making them easy targets to hyenas.

"We got a Problem! Malka, Tojo, and Tama are in trouble!" Simba said running back into the clearing, then turning right back around disappearing in the bush just as quick. Whatever conversation Nala and Kula were having had died, and both looked at each other with the same thought.

Nala and Kula ran off in the direction they had seen Simba ext, and not fifteen yards later, found themselves on a cleared out path. They look to their right to see that Simba was running towards Malka, Tojo, and Tama who were running towards him, with what looked to be seven hyenas hot on their tail.

"Run!" Malka yelled at Simba, Nala, and Kula. They weren't conditioned enough to be out running adult hyenas at their age, all but Simba at least, which means at some point they would have to resort to fighting.

Nala and Kula begin to take off in the other direction, soon joined by Malka, Tojo, and Tama. But Simba didn't run. The group soon looked back to see the hyenas had stopped running and were right in front of Simba, in a standoff.

Everyone stopped and watched as Simba stood up alone to eight adult hyenas, which was practically suicide in such a situation.

"What are you doing!?" "Get back here!" "Run!" The group started to shout, all off which Simba ignored. He knew that he could outrun the Hyenas, but they couldn't. And there was no way in hell he would just leave them like that.

"Well, Well… Well…" The largest hyena said as he stepped up, of whom Simba guessed to be the leader of the pack. "A lone cub, who strayed too far from the pride" He said attempting to scare Simba. He was irritated slightly when he saw that Simba was still holding his ground.

By this time, the others had already come back in an attempt to get Simba to flee with them, the smart thing to do. "What do you want" Simba said sounding rather stoic. The hyena was a little insulted that this cub was standing his ground and talking back to him. He was going to set an example.

"You're rather big for a cub your age… It's a shame you won't be around anymore for anyone to admire you" He said smirking.

"You don't know who you're talking to! That's Simba, son of the king! Prince of the pridelands!" Tojo said smirking, thinking fancy titles outta scare them away.

"The price? Haha! Son of the king 'ey? Just happens to be that your father is the one who keeps us out of these lands. The reason we go hungry every night… All the more reason to kill ya" The hyena said with a sinister laugh at the end. The remaining six hyenas joined in on the laugh, striking fear in the cub's hearts, all but Simba.

"Aww, what's wrong? You want your mommy? I bet you're mommy's special boy" The hyena started to taunt Simba with a pouty face and whiny voice. Tama flinched upon hearing this. He almost beat her to no limit for asked what mom had raised him, and this hyena had just insulted his mother directly.

"Walk away now… and no one gets hurt…" Simba said sounding calm, but everyone could hear that he was livid on the inside. The other cubs started to fear that Simba was going to end up killing the hyena is some god like act of rage, and all wanted to take a step back.

"Awww… hear that lads? Mommy's boy says he doesn't want any trouble!" The hyena said bursting out in laughter, soon being followed by the rest. "Hey, maybe your mommy will come along and rescue you, but I bet not… I bet she doesn't even love you" The hyena said, drawing the final straw.

Faster than a flash of lighting, Simba had slammed the hyenas head against the ground and knocked him out. The impact of his head hitting the ground had broken both jaws, rendered him concus, and busted multiple teeth out. The injury wasn't fatal, yet he would never really recover from it either.

"What the fu-" The hyena next to him said in awe at what he had just witnessed but was cut off short when Simba slammed his paw into in throat, momentary crushing his trachea, Then swiping his head and knocking him out.

The remaining five hyenas began to rush Simba, thinking their numbers would overwhelm him. Hyenas weren't as big as lions and would use their numbers to overwhelm. A deadly and effective strategy.

Simba dodged a blow and put all his strength into striking the gut of one hyena, and it responded by vomiting almost instantly. The vomit was brown and red, a mixture of stomach acid and blood, a sign of an internal wound. The hyena stumbled a bit but shortly fell over out cold from the pain.

Another went to strike Simba down as well, but Simba caught his paw and snapped his arm, effectively splitting the radius, ulna, and humerus bone, which everyone could hear the crack and scream of pain that followed. Simba than struck him on the head, knocking him out instantly as well.

One hyena tried to flank Simba, but Simba just head butted him extraordinarily hard, instantaneously knocking him out like the others. Simba already knew the correct way to headbutt someone without hurting himself and wasn't even fazed by the impact.

With only two left, Simba pinned one to the ground with ease, and the other fled in total fear after witnessing what Simba had just done. Simba had pinned the hyena do the ground and was pressing his paw against his throat, with the other paw in the air, claws unsheathed, ready to bring his arm down and end the canines life.

Simba was giving the hyena a death glare and was looking into his eyes. Simba saw utter fear. The hyena was absolutely terrified, and Simba began to pity the animal. He was in a mental war over what to do. Spare the hyena, even though it tried to kill him. Or kill the hyena, as it's lied helplessly upon the ground.

"Leave" Simba said it a voice that sent shivers up everyone's spine. Simba got off the hyena and the hyena wasted no time and bolted off towards where its companion had done not too long ago.

Simba looked around and saw what he had done to hyenas. He looked over to where the group was and saw that Sarafina was standing in front of them, and the others looking around her to be able to see him. Sarafina was shocked that Simba had single handedly taken down five adult hyenas and sent the other two fleeing with their tails between their legs, something that would be hard for her to do on her own.

Sarafina started to approach Simba now that the situation has diffused enough to where he had time to calm down and come back to reality. Simba lifted his paw, an obvious sign that he was going to try to run away and do just what he had done the time before the storm hit.

"Don't… Even... think about it" Sarafina said towards Simba. Simba halted, knowing to still respect Sarafina even though she may not be his true mother. "Go back to pride rock and wait for me" Sarafina said looking at the group. Nala attempted to take a step forward to be with Simba, but was shortly stopped. "All of you" Sarafina said with a dead serious tone.

The five cubs all did as they were told and started to make their way to pride rock, not daring to stick around and eavesdrop after hearing Sarafinas tone. After all the cubs were out of earshot, Sarafina glanced back towards Simba, who had been waiting for her.

"Someone needs to talk to you..." Sarafina said completely disregarding the entire situation that had just happened. Simba was surprised by this, and though that she was going to yell at him for his actions, or something along those lines. "But we will talk about... this... later" Sarafina said as she walked in the direction of the cubs, making sure no one got too curious for their own good.

Upon saying that, Chumvi exited the tall grass and made his way towards Simba, refusing to make eye contact. Chumvi looked around and saw what was left of the hyenas, and felt thankful that Simba never did anything bad to him when he was being bullied.

Simba hadn't expected Chumvi to be here and knew that it was a good thing Sarafina made everyone else leave due to the fact that they all hated him right now. "Let's talk somewhere else" Simba said as he followed Chumvi line of sight, seeing the unconscious hyenas scattered all over the place.

Chumvi just nodded his head, still refusing to make eye contact out of the fear knowing Simba could end him at any moment. Chumvi was just shocked by was Simba had done and started to wonder what would have happened if he ever crossed the line just like the hyena had.

After around ten minutes of walking, Simba and Chumvi had entered this little clear out in the middle of nowhere. Simba turned around and looked at Chumvi who had finally decided to make eye contact for the first time.

"Umm… So…" Chumvi said not knowing where to start.

"If you came to apologize, then I accept your apology" Simba said. Chumvi was stunned. After everything he had done to him, he just forgave him, like that. "Look, I know you're surprised, but no one should have to go through what I went through, and that's what you're doing right now. If you'll allow me to, I'll help the other cubs realized that you've changed" Simba said. He just wanted an apology from Chumvi, what he didn't want was for Chumvi to endure the same kind of pain he did. Something he wouldn't wish upon his worst enemy.

"B-But… I ruined your early cub days. I bullied you to no end, a-and got everyone to hate you for a short period of time. How can you forgive me so easily, and then want to help me?" Chumvi asked in disbelief.

"Like I said. You did a lot of bad things when you were young, but you've changed recently. Revenge doesn't solve anything. If I wanted everyone to hate you, then I would be no different than you when you used to bully me. I never meant for them to do this to you, and I've been meaning to talk to them about it. When I was young I always believed that one day we could be friends. So… can we? Or can we not?" Simba said. This was beyond the maturity of some adults in the pride, and yet Simba was just a cub. One day he would make a hell of a king.

"I…" Chumvi started but was still in disbelief. "I can't thank you enough. I mean really. I thought you would hate me and I would have to find a new pride that would accept me. And yes, we can try to be friends, if you want" Chumvi said. Simba smiled and nodded, something Chumvi never thought he would see in his life.

"But there is one problem" Simba said. Chumvi started to feel nervous again, thinking he was celebrating too early. "The others. Tama absolutely hates you. Malka and Tojo don't really hate you as she does, but trust me they don't like you. Kula… she's pretty torn over all of this. And Nala… well, she and Tama have the same ideas" Simba said warning Chumvi that the others still hated him to no end.

"Oh… I understand" Chumvi said understanding that he still wasn't completely forgiven. "So now what?" Chumvi asked unsure of what to do.

"Now we go and see the others… And I expect them to still be angry with you" Simba said. Chumvi nodded nervously, knowing the other would still be angry, but hopefully, with time and Simba on his side, they could forgive him.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala was currently pacing back and forth just outside pride rock waiting for Simba to return. It had been over an hour and she was starting to worry that he had run off again in an attempt to hide from other people, fearing he might hurt them.

There were so many things going through Nala's mind about where Simba could be and if he was ok or not, that she was frantically working herself up. The others had adopted the attitude that he would show up when he wanted to and was more than capable of taking care of himself.

The thing everyone was wondering was how he was able to have five hyenas knocked out, one pinned to the ground, and the last running for the hills in around ten seconds, only spending around two seconds fighting each individual one before knocking them out.

The others were able to tell when Simba had returned by the way Nala had bolted from one side of the entrance to the other seeming to be very focused on something in the distance. By now they all knew about Nala being rather protective of Simba, especially from the story Kula shared about earlier that day.

The Cubs walked up beside Nala and were relieved to see Simba walking their way, but they quickly started to feel mixed emotions when they saw who was following him.

Simba being Simba didn't want to have to go anywhere near pride rock in fear of his father being inside, and motioned for them to come over to him. While everyone was making their way towards Simba, they kept on wandering what half hearted excuses Chumvi had to offer them this time around.

"I thought I said come back in seven months…" Tama said walking up to Chumvi preparing to smack the crap out of him, but her path was soon blocked by a rather angry looking Simba.

"I thought you changed. I thought you became more accepting of others" Simba said to all of them. Upon hearing this they were all confused. They had accepted him as a friend and were very loyal to him.

"What are you talking about us not changing?" Tama said surprised he would think that of them.

"You're doing the same thing you did to me to Chumvi, as revenge. I know you angry at him, but that doesn't mean you punish him by making him an outcast. If I describe in depth the pain and struggles I went through being alone out there, without the bullying, you would realize the kind of person you'd be creating here. Trust me, it more of a transformation than a punishment" Simba said speaking from experience.

The others hadn't thought of it that way before and slowly began to realize that what they were doing was wrong. Sure they were still furious at him, and with good reason. Yet they all knew that their current form of punishment wasn't the moral way to do things.

"So what do you suppose we do? Because I'll be damned if he gets away with no punishment for what he's done" Tama said glaring at Chumvi. Chumvi knew that he was lucky that they were going to reconsider his punishment, but still felt like he deserved more than the punishment he was receiving now for the things he'd done.

"Give him a second chance" Simba said. Simba could see that everyone was about to protest against his decision, but he made sure to beat them first. "I know it sounds crazy, but take away all the bad things he's done, and what do you have left? A cub that you've known your entire life. A cub you used to play with every day for as long as you've been alive. A cub you saw as a friend and a brother. That's who he was to you, so why can't he be that cub again? I mean if you want to punish him then fine. But you might as well save him the trouble and just kill him now" Simba said.

Everyone was shocked. Everything Simba had said was true. He was a friend and a brother to them. They had all known him since day one. And they would have ruined his life if they continued to him.

"Instead of punishing him, make him prove himself worthy. Let him redeem himself. And then we'll see who he truly is" Simba said hoping that something he said would change their minds.

Everyone had to agree that Simba was right. What they were doing was wrong. What they should have done was allow him to prove himself worthy, instead of deeming him sick and false.

"I still don't like you… But what Simba is saying is true. But if I ever make find out you did something like this again… I put an end to it… permanently…" Tama said threatening him before walking away into the tall grass to cool down somewhere else.

The others agreed with Tama, yet not to her extreme conditions and all nodded. Chumvi smiled slightly knowing he had been giving a second chance but was smart enough not to celebrate, for the road ahead was uncertain and would prove challenging.

Everyone started to fan out. All going their separate ways, leaving Simba and Nala alone, giving the couple some time to have a much-needed conversation. The two subs started to make their way back to the hideout, needing to have a serious talk about the previous events.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Sarafina was currently approaching Mufasa, who was per usual staring off into the pride lands, thinking about his deceased wife. "We need to talk" Sarafina said as she approached her king.

"If it's about Simba then I don't care" Mufasa said figuring the only reason she would want to talk to him was something that had to do with Simba. The only reason Sarafina ever talked to Mufasa was to try to convince him to see that his son needed him, and he was making a mistake.

"His training is going well you should know. I must say he will make an excellent king one day" Sarafina said, knowing that what she had just said would irritate the king. Mufasa was fed up with all the Simba this and Simba that bullcrap, and was just ready for this entire thing to be dropped.

"Heh… He's no king. He's too shy and cares too much about other people's feelings to be a king. The job would just be too much for him" Mufasa said underestimating Simba's capabilities. Sarafina smirked at just how oblivious Mufasa was towards the entire situation.

"Your son successfully took down five adult hyenas today protecting our young single-handedly and didn't sustain even the smallest scratch. He is more than ready to lead this kingdom. So if you think he's so weak, then let him take the trials. I'm sure he'll impress you" Sarafina said bragging as if Simba was her own son.

"Very well. I'll allow him to take the trails. But if he fails, which he will, I don't want to hear any more on this matter. Deal?" Mufasa said attempting to strike a deal.

"Deal. He starts the first trial in three months" Sarafina said.

"Not so fast. You said he's more than ready to lead this kingdom. And that he took down a pack of hyenas all by himself" Mufasa said using an exaggerated voice. "If he's so ready then he'll start his first one tomorrow. So do we have a deal? or not..." Mufasa said.

Sarafina was reluctant at first. A day notice before the trials to becoming king was almost unfair, but Mufasa wasn't the negotiable type. "We have a deal" Sarafina said confidently. Mufasa chuckled slightly at how diluted Sarafina was appearing to be.

"Very well. The top of pride rock at sunrise tomorrow… and don't be late" Mufasa said. Sarafina nodded, turned around, and walked away. This conversation was over, and what was important was that Simba was ready for his first trial in the mourning.

Sarafina was nervous. It was nearly dusk, and Simba would have to take the trials in under twelve hours. It was all up to Simba to complete the trials successfully, for if he failed, the pride lands wouldn't have an heir, and certain anarchy would arise…

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba and Nala had just made it back to his hideout and were surprised to see that Tama was pacing around waiting for them.

"Hey, you need something?" Simba asked. Tama looked up and was finally relieved they showed up. She had only been waiting five minutes she just needed to know how he took down those hyenas.

"Yes. Earlier today with those hyenas. You were amazing! I mean you took them each out with only one hit! It was the most spectacular thing I've ever seen. Just the fact-" Tama was saying in awe until Simba cut her off.

"Alright, I get it!" Simba yelled sounding rather angry, shutting her up and leaving Nala and Tama speechless. It was just that his outburst was so sudden and took everyone by surprise.

"Simba..." Nala said making it clear that he could talk to her if he needed to.

"I'm ok, its just I didn't want to hurt them. The reason I stood up was to protect you guys, and I ended up hurting them for my own reasons. I struck first" Simba said feeling a little guilty.

"Simba you did what you had to. Those hyenas weren't going to stop. They wanted to hurt us, and it a good thing you landed the first blow because if you didn't... the outcome could have been very different" Tama said attempting to cheer Simba up.

"Thanks, Tama. It just I never wanted to hurt anyone. But I'll be ok" Simba said as he smiled towards her. Tama smiled back but soon looked past him and dropped her smile.

Simba and Nala turned around to see Sarafina speed walking towards them, with the facial expressions of 'We need to talk and now'. The cubs felt uneasy, knowing that this probably wasn't going to be good news...

 **Duh Duh Duuuuuh… The Trials… Begin… Happy New years Y'all! And the reason I'm saying this is because it's currently 12:15 AM and I'm hauling ass to have this story out by… today… and I haven't even started to edit this thing. So hope you enjoyed this chapter because if ya did you'll love the next chapter. Like I always say, If you guys like this story then comment or PM saying why! Motivates me to get these chapters out faster! (Also makes me feel more popular and Important) So that basically sums up this story. Y'all have a good one! Mr_Toast out!**


	7. The Trials

**Simba's Pain Chapter 7**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Chapter Seven… This story was originally meant to be a one-shot and I never really imagined it becoming this long. So like I said in the last story, The Trials begin! So honestly I just want to thank all you guys who motivated me to keep writing stories and posting them. It's really fun to write them and I hope you guys enjoy them as much as I do. Like always, if you have any suggestions or ideas just write a review or PM me saying what it is and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. With all that out of the way, Enjoy!**

Simba knew that Sarafina was going to want to talk to him judging by how she was walking straight towards him. Simba was nervous due to the fact that Sarafinas facial expression changed from stern to worried had a worried look on her face, which was something Simba had never seen.

"Follow me, Now" Sarafina said making it clear as if it wasn't already clear enough that she was in no mood for games and lollygagging. Simba turned around and looked back towards Nala and Tama to see if they had anything they wanted to say about this situation, but they just gave him a worried and confused glance.

"Now" Sarafina said with a stricter tone stating she was in a rush and it was something important. Simba turned away from his two friends and started to follow Sarafina, wondering how much weirder and stressful this day could get. First the hyenas, now this.

After a few minutes of walking, and making sure no one was going to try to listen in, Sarafina turned around and confronted Simba. "Simba. I wish you could have had more time to prepare but tomorrow morning you will take your first trial to become king" Sarafina said hoping that Simba wouldn't protest.

"What?! But you've only been training me for like two months! I'm nowhere near ready. Why can't I take it later when I'm ready?" Simba protested. Sarafina internally sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to like anything about these challenges, and the worst was still to come.

"It's your father. I said that you were strong, but he took it the wrong way. He used my words against me. He will only allow you to start tomorrow, or you'll never start at all" Sarafina said. Simba cursed inside his head. Blackmail was a cheap and dirty method to get what you want.

"So I don't have a choice do I?" Simba asked already knowing the answer. He had no idea what his father had in store for him and he had less than twelve hours to prepare.

"No" Sarafina said apologetically whilst shaking her head. "And they won't be easy. Knowing your father, he is going to push you not only physically, but emotionally as well. He doesn't think you'll ever be ready, and he will go a long way to prove himself right" Sarafina said annoyed by the way her king handled things.

"Then all I can do is prove him wrong" Simba said breaking eye contact and turning around. Sarafina smiled lightly, glad to see that Simba was at least willing to go along with the trials for now.

"Umm…" Simba said as if he wanted to ask a question, but was unsure of whether or not it was something he should ask. "Yes" Sarafina replied, curious to what he had to say. "My mother…" Simba said stopping once more. Sarafina was definitely intrigued now as his mother was something that was hard to talk about for him.

"Nevermind" Simba said as he trotted away in the bush wanted some alone time to think. Sarafina just stood there, not bothering to go after him, and pitied him slightly. She knew something was bothering him that had something to do with his mother and he was going to ask her in an attempt to ease his mind.

It was now officially sunset and Sarafina remember the two young lionesses she left at Simba's hideout that were undoubtedly wondering what was going on.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala and Tama had been waiting at his hideout for Simba to come back, and were talking among themselves as to what could cause Sarafina to drag Simba out like that. They both shot up when they heard that someone was coming there way, but were surprised to see that Nala's mother was walking towards them and not Simba.

"Auntie, What's going on?" Tama asked as she started to walk towards Tama. Sarafina looked at her niece and just sighed, walking past her and looking out towards the savannah. It was now evident that something was bothering Sarafina, and it had to do with Simba.

"Mom?" Nala asked unsure if she should be pushing her mother right now or not. Sarafin inhaled once more before preparing them for good and bad news.

"Simba… will be taking his first trial tomorrow mourning, at the crack of dawn" Sarafina said. Nala was confused, not knowing what she was referring to when she said the trials. Tama on the other hand, felt levels of nervousness and anger start to rise.

"What! But he's nowhere ready! Not to put him down but he has almost no chance of passing them. You can't do that to him, he needs more time!" Tama protested. Nala was now worried, as she had no idea what trials they were referring too.

"Hold on! What's going on. What trials are Simba taking and why isn't he ready!? Why wasn't I told about this!?" Nala said now getting worked up herself. Sarafina hadn't really told Nala, not thinking that it would be such a big deal, and not knowing that this would happen.

"His trials to become king" Tama said. Sarafina nodded before giving Nala the rest of the story.

"Simba was supposed to take them when he was ready, but your uncle decided that he should take the first one tomorrow mourning" Sarafina said still angry by what Mufasa had done.

"He can't do that! Simba needs to be given a fair chance!" Tama said now understanding why he was taking them so early.

"He can and he will. He's the king, which means that he will decide when Simba is ready, and he will also be the one making the tests" Sarafina said knowing that there was nothing that could be done, without causing Mufasa to cancel the trials altogether.

"Well I'm going to right now and confronting about this!" Nala said angered by the fact that her uncle would do such a thing. Sarafina felt her angry just boil-over and didn't care about yelling at her daughter in front of Tama.

"You will not! You will stay here and wait for Simba to return! Do you understand me!" Sarafina shouted approaching Nala, scaring her half to death. Tama just watched at Sarafina chewed into Nala for almost no reason.

"If you confront him about it, then he will most definitely cancel them. Were lucky that Mufasa was willing to let him take them in the first place" Sarafina said feeling a little guilty that she yelled at her daughter so harshly.

"I'm sorry" Nala said still a little scared at what just happened. Tama just watched from the side as Sarafina laid into Nala, not wanted to cross Sarafina as Nala had done.

"So what are we going to do? It's not like we can get him ready overnight and we have no idea where he is" Tama asked. Sarafina didn't know what they were going to about this whole situation due to the fact that she didn't want to make Mufasa mad and end up canceling the trials.

"You" Sarafina said towards Nala. "Stay here and wait for Simba to return" Sarafina said. "And you, go tell the other cubs the news" Sarafina said towards Tama. "And don't say a thing to Mufasa" Sarafina added sounding much stricter.

With a nod, Tama turned around and started running towards Pride Rock, preparing to tell the cubs that the plan had changed.

"I'm going to talk to Rafiki. Wait for Simba" Sarafina said once more making sure her daughter knew not to try anything stupid. Nala just sighed and nodded, knowing that she would probably just be waiting for the next hour or two, knowing how Simba could be at times.

With that Sarafina bolted off in the direction of Rafiki's tree, preparing to tell her old friend the news.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Tojo was the first to notice that Tama was running towards them with a worried look on her face, which was a total surprise seeing that Tama was almost never worried.

"What's Wrong?" Tojo asked as he got up, alerting the others that Tama had arrived and something might be wrong. Everyone but Simba had only seen Tama more aggressive and angry side and never knew her as a caring person.

"Simba is taking the first trial tomorrow mourning" Tama said. Everyone just looked at her shocked. They all knew that he was nowhere near ready, and they had planned for him take them in three months.

"Why so soon?" Malka asked unsure of why the plan changed so soon and that they didn't know about this.

"Mufasa is making him take them early. Which is unfair, but we can't confront him or he could cancel them and Simba will never get the chance to become king" Tama said. Everyone then realized that this was just Mufasa's way of trying to get rid of Simba once again.

"So what will we do?" Kula asked. Tama didn't really know what they were supposed to do, as Sarafina only told her to tell the other cubs the news, then… she didn't know.

"I guess we try to be there for Simba. Let's go to his hideout" Tama suggested. Everyone looked at each other and nodded. The Cubs broke into a run towards Simba's hideout, knowing that it was too late for them to be out, but they didn't care. Their friend needed them.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala heard something that was approaching and got up, expecting it to be Simba but was a little surprised to see that Malka, Tojo, Tama, and Kula were running her ways.

"Have you seen Simba?" Nala asked as she walked towards them, wondering why they had come here.

"No, but we just found out what happened" Malka said as he slowed and entered his hideout. Nala looked from face to face and confirmed that they hadn't seen Simba. Nala was starting to worry a little. Last time Simba wanted to be alone like this, it didn't end well.

"So why are you here?" Nala asked. The grouped looked around and didn't see Simba around, and also felt a little uneasy.

"We came back to support Simba" Tojo said. Nala was surprised and happy that they warmed up to him so quickly and would support him in a time like this.

"Well, my mother said we should wait here for Simba to return" Nala said sounded a little irritated that her mother made her stay why everyone else could leave.

"Well, we'll stay with you. Plus we won't find Simba unless he wants us to find him" Tama said knowing his ability to sense when people were approaching. As if on cue, they heard someone come out of the tall grass behind, and turned around to see that Chumvi walking towards them with a nervous smile.

Chumvi felt the atmosphere thicken a little as they saw him, and knew that they still hated him, and would most likely always hate him. "Hey…" Chumvi said as he noticed they were starting to glare at him a bit.

"What do you want" Tama said in an angry voice as she approached Chumvi, still wanting to beat the living daylights out of him. Chumvi heard the tone in her voice and stopped, keeping his distance.

"Aunt Sarafina told me the news, and I wanted to know if I could help" Chumvi said with a smile, hoping they would accept his help. Everyone was a little surprised that he was willing to come near them right now, let alone ask them if they wanted his help.

"We don't want your help, Nor do we need it. Now get lost" Tama spat out. Chumvi felt a now familiar pain in his chest as he got shot down so harshly.

"Oh… well… I understand. Thanks anyway… and tell Simba I said good luck" Chumvi said with a smile, yet everyone saw that Tama had clearly hurt his feelings.

"Go. Shoo. Bye. Scram" Tama said wanted him to just leave. Chumvi just nodded and turned around, walking away with his shoulders slumped. Everyone was a little surprised that Tama shot him down like that, even after saying that she would try to be nice and accepting of him.

Everyone was watching Chumvi walk away when Simba came out of the grass and cut in front of him, probably telling him something along the lines to follow, seeing as Chumvi turned around and started to follow Simba.

"Hey guys" Simba said, noticing they were watching Chumvi more than they were watching him. Simba knew they still didn't like him, but they were just going to have to deal with it. "So I'm guessing we all know about what happened by now?" Simba asked as he looked at everyone.

"Yea…" Tama said still glaring at Chumvi. Chumvi gave her a little smile, hoping that it would ease her up, but ending up doing the complete opposite. Tama saw this smile and read it as he was smirking at her for being unable to get rid of him.

"So what are you going to do about tomorrow?" Malka asked, watching Tama, making sure that she wasn't going to try to charge at Chumvi.

"Pray I don't fail" Simba said. Everyone just stared around blankly for a few seconds wondering why his plan was to pray for him not to fail.

"You're not serious are you?" Tojo asked, speaking for everyone in the group. Simba knew that someone was going to say that, but it wasn't like there was much else they could.

"Well, what else can we do? We got less than twelve hours and can't go to the king" Simba said. Everyone realized that there was really nothing they could do, the trails were tomorrow and that was final.

"Don't you mean your father?" Kula asked unsure of why he referred to his father as 'king'. Everyone felt the air thicken as there were a brief few seconds of complete silence, where everyone was watching Simba to see how he would react.

"Yea… My father" Simba said in a mixed tone that no one was able to read. "Anyway, we should probably all just get some rest and hope he doesn't throw anything impossible at me" Simba said quickly following up not wanted to create a weird atmosphere… a weirder one...

Everyone looked at each other and sighed, before starting to walk in the direction of Pride Rock, but two stayed back with Simba. Tama still had questions about the hyenas and wanted to make sure he was ready for the trials, while Nala just wanted to be there to support him.

"Yes?" Simba said now knowing they were staying to probably ask questions and make sure he was ok. Tama didn't want to waste any time and got straight to the point.

"Well I just wondering how you took all those hyenas down earlier today" Tama said, knowing that he probably didn't want to talk about it, but at the same time how could she just dismiss the fact that he was able to take down five and pin one.

"I don't know I just did" Simba said a little irritated, not wanted to think about the topic. Tama decided to do something dumb and take a risk, and began to continue asking questions.

"You do know, and I want you to tell me. I know I probably shouldn't be risking my safety for some questions that might just be better off left unanswered. It's just that nothing makes sense. Sarafina wanted me to teach you how to fight, yet clearly, you already know how to. Also, it doesn't make sense that you were able to take them all down by yourself due to the fact that you're a cub. Most adult lions would have trouble doing that, yet you took each of them down with one shot, making it look easy" Tama said, hoping she didn't cross any lines along the way.

"I just got angry. And you're right, I already know how to fight but only when I'm angry. That's why I fear to be around you guys. When I get angry I often turn my rage in violence. It's what happened a while ago with you and it's what happened today" Simba said, hoping she would just drop the subject.

"Fair enough, But how did you know where to punch them to knock them out, or how to break an arm. And where did you learn to do a perfect headbutt?" Tama asked, knowing that only some of the best fighters knew these things.

"I taught myself. Every time I got hurt I would study the wound and where it was located. Over time I realized that some cuts and bruises hurt more than others just by where they were positioned on your body. That's how I knew where to punch them. Some spots of your body are more sensitive than others, and when hit hard enough causes the person to freeze up. I knew how to break the one hyena's arm simply by knowing that when you lock the muscle against the bone, the bone absorbs all the energy. And for the head butt, I just used the thickest part of my head" Simba said, going into detail as to answers any further questions she might have.

"Could you teach me?" Tama asked is a somewhat excited voice, completely disregarding the fact that the trials were tomorrow and making sure he was ready for them.

"Later" Simba said annoyed, knowing that some of the moves he knew could be fatal in the wrong paws.

"Ok well the second reason I stayed back is to make sure you're ready for the trials" Tama said. Simba was confused when she said ready, due to the fact that the trial could literally be anything making it impossible to truly be ready.

"Ok…" Simba said, not knowing what else to say. He looked over to Nala and saw that she looked at him with an equally confused face.

"Alright first, how does your chest feel?" Tama asked referring to the injury he had recently sustained, in which he was only cleared of today.

"Tight, but I should be able to manage" Simba said. He then realized that this would just be a check over of his physical condition, and would just be a waste of time.

"Does anything hurt?" Tama asked, knowing that the answer would be no.

"Nope" Simba replied.

"When was the last time you ate?" Tama asked, thinking she already knew the answer.

"Uhhh… two days ago I think. Three counting today" Simba responded. Tama and Nala just looked at him in total surprise. Not having eaten anything in three days, when there was food available, was just plain out dumb.

"Simba…" Nala said irritated that he was skipping meals again. "You know you need to eat, especially if you had a wound that would take a while to heal!" Nala said now approaching him to address him upfront.

"I know" Simba replied feeling a little guilty. He knew he should be eating every day, yet he wasn't used to it. He got used to going to bed hungry at night and he was just trying to get used to eating every day.

"Well, we can see if you can eat something before you start" Tama said wondering how he could go two days without eating and still have the energy to take down five hyenas.

"Alrighty and last question. Anything involving your mental health we need to be concerned about?" Tama asked. Simba chucked a little knowing he was pretty mentally jacked up, but as far as her question went he was fine.

"Nope, once again" Simba said. Sarafina was supposed to ask him those questions, but seeing as she was gone and wouldn't get the chance to see as it was now well after sunset, Tama decided to save them precious time in the mourning.

"Good. Get some sleep. I have a feeling you'll need it" Tama said before turning around, heading back to Pride Rock to get some sleep herself. This left Simba and Nala alone, and now Nala could start bombarding him with questions herself.

"You ok?" Nala asked looking towards Simba, where she noticed that he was refusing to make eye contact with her. "Simba?" Nala tried once again, now she realized that he was in deep thought. "Simba!" Nala said louder and nudged his shoulder, finally getting him to notice her. "What's the matter?" Nala asked now that she had his attention.

"Nothing" Simba said turning around, but Nala quickly swept in front of him blocking his way. Simba knew that she was going to do a classic move and force him to tell her what was bothering him.

"We've been through this, that doesn't work with me. Now, what's the matter" Nala said much more sincere, making sure Simba knew she was only trying to help him.

"Do you ever feel that you're trying to do the right thing… but maybe it's not what someone else wants?" Simba asked knowing that she wouldn't have a direct answer to that. Nala just gave him a blank stare. What was he trying to do, and who doesn't want him to do it?

"What do you mean?" Nala asked. Simba sighed knowing that he was going to have to have another long and uncomfortable talk with her that would leave her with more answers than before.

"Well… What if I'm trying to become king so I could satisfy the people around me and make things right, but maybe I'm going to disappoint someone else…" Simba said. Now Nala was starting to understand. He was starting to second guess himself on whether or not become king was the right thing to do.

"Who would be disappointed in you?" Nala asked.

"That's none of your business" A voice came from behind the two cubs. Both cubs turned around and saw that Sarafina was behind them and listening to their conversation. Sarafina knew that Simba was wondering whether his mother would approve and be proud of him becoming king, and she knew that nothing would have made Sarabi prouder.

"It is my business now piss off" Nala said, angry that her mother was eavesdropping, cut her off, and told her that it was none of her business. Sarafina felt her anger rise to new levels after hearing her own daughter disrespect her like that and tell her to 'piss off'.

"Excuse me?" Sarafina said with a death tone. Nala tensed up upon realizing that she had just told her mother to 'piss off'. Simba looked back towards Nala, who was looking at him with a face that read 'Im screwed'.

"M-mom…" Nala said with a nervous laugh. Sarafina posture and face didn't change, explaining to Nala that she crossed a serious line by saying that. Sarafina was so fed up with all the disrespect Nala had shown her in the past few weeks.

Simba was causing Nala to become a rather negative person in a way. She had no respect for her mother, and yelled at her friends and accused them of seeing Simba behind her back. "Now let's just get one thing straight. You and I are going to have a serious talk about your behavior as of recently" Sarafina said.

"Mom I'm sorry it won't happen again. I promise" Nala said pleading for forgiveness. Sarafina knew that Nala was just love drunk and couldn't blame her for that. But her behavior had to improve, or she could end up losing Simba.

"We'll talk later" Sarafina said. "Now let's go" Sarafina said towards to two. Nala had already planned on staying with Simba, and she knew Simba was most likely not going to want to stay anywhere near Pride Rock.

"I'm staying with Simba" Nala said. Sarafina rolled her eyes annoyed at the way Nala was acting. She remembered when she fell in love with a young male herself, but she wasn't anything like Nala.

"I know. The two of you. Pride Rock. Now" Sarafina said. "I'm not taking any chances of you oversleeping" Sarafina added when she saw the two about to protest. Nala looked up and saw it had to be nearing midnight.

Nala didn't want to argue anymore and lose precious sleep, so she sighed and followed her mother's lead with Simba in tow.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Upon entering Pride Rock, Simba walked to the back of the cave where the rest of the cubs slept and lied down in the far corner. He still didn't like the idea of being in this place and it slightly eased his mind to know that he had a view of the entire place this way.

Nala walked over to where Simba was a went to ask him if he was going to be able to get any sleep here, and was surprised to see that he had already fallen asleep after laying down for at most ten seconds. Without wasting any more time, Nala got down next to Simba and followed his lead. Tomorrow was going to be a hard day and they both were going to need all the rest they could get.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala had woken up an hour before dawn knowing that the trials were going to begin shortly. Nala never woke up with early, going to show how much it was bugging her throughout the night.

The first thing she noticed was that her source of comfort was missing. She looked around the cave and saw that Simba wasn't inside. She looked towards her mother, and then her friends and saw they were all asleep as well, ruling out the idea he could be with one of them.

Nala quickly trotted over to her mother and nudged her pretty hard, waking her up instantly. Sarafina was a little confused for a second, but then realized what day it was and shot up. She quickly looked around the cave and didn't see Simba, and knew that's why Nala had woken her up.

"Great" Sarafina muttered. She had already guessed Simba had a hard time sleeping, and most likely snuck out during the night to find somewhere else to sleep. Sarafina looked out towards the tip of Pride Rock and saw something that sent chills up her spine.

Mufasa was walking towards the top of pride rock, and Simba was walking back towards the cave, both staring intensely at the other. Mufasa was sending Simba a glare, while Simba was just merely studying his father. Sarafina could swear she felt the air thicken as the two came side by side for just a split second, before breaking eye contact, with neither looking back.

It was the first time in a long time since Mufasa has seen his son, and was probably surprised to see how much he had grown and matured. Sarafina walked up to Simba and met him at the mouth of the cave, where Nala pushed her out of the way to get to Simba first.

Sarafina then remembered the little incident with Nala the other day and knew that she still needed to have a chat with her.

Sarafina inspected Simba herself. Physical, he was unmatched. Sarafina knew that he couldn't be any more ready physically but still feared that Mufasa was going to test him more mentally.

Sarafina heard someone from behind her and turned around to see that Tama had woken up. Apart from Simba, Tama was the only other light sleeper and early riser. Always ready for a fight or for something unexpected happen.

Upon looking back she saw Malka slowly start to get up, most likely from Tama. And the other three were starting to stir a bit.

It wasn't normal for them all to get up this early, yet you could almost smell the levels of nervousness in the air. Sarafina looked backed to see that Simba was rather calm. Nala and Tama were pretty nervous and whisper him questions on whether he was ok or not, yet he just stayed calm and level.

She looked past the three cubs towards Mufasa. He also never woke up this early anymore. Before the death of Sarabi, he was an active and fun king. Now, now he was dull and boring. It got so bad that Zazu, the king's major dodo, stopped giving him the mourning report since he never cared about the kingdom anymore.

Sarafina then realized that she hadn't seen Zazu in a long time, and wondered if he was even still in the kingdom. She pushed that thought away as right now it was not important. She refocused her back behind her and now saw that Malka, Tojo, Chumvi, and Kula were all up and slowly making their way towards the front.

She watched as Chumvi stayed towards the back of the line, cautious not to do something to further ruin his reputation. Sarafina did feel bad for him but was glad that they had all decided to give him a second chance, and maybe even Kula could tell him a very special something in due time.

Time must have been sped up because when Sarafina looked at the horizon, the sun's rays were starting to peak over and illuminate the pride lands. Sarafina looked towards Simba and gave him a look that read 'It's time'.

Simba took a deep breath in, and let it out. He wasn't nervous, but the fact that he would be responsible for the future of the pride lands didn't make it any easier. Simba turned around and faced his father.

As if being able to sense his son's sight, Mufasa turned around and made eye contact with Simba. Mufasa was surprised to see how big he was standing next to everyone. He was almost as big as a Sarafina, who was a fully matured lioness, and he was just a day away from turning one year old. Mufasa shuttered a little. Tomorrow would be the one year anniversary of Sarabis passing, and Simba's first birth date.

Mufasa didn't really know what to say when he saw this. Simba was bigger than he was at his age, and when he saw his definition, he knew Simba was much more than what he had previously thought. He felt a quick feeling that felt something like he was… Proud…

Mufasa smothered that feeling knowing he could never feel proud of forgive his son for what he had done. Mufasa motioned for Simba to come over and he watched as his son slowly started to walk up to where he was.

He looked passed Simba and saw how nervous everyone else. It was weird that everyone else was so nervous, yet Simba, The one who would have to pass each trail wasn't.

Simba stopped a few feet in front of his father, giving him a slight bow, treating him more as a king than as a father. Mufasa was expecting that Simba would treat him as his father, yet he saw him show the same respect everyone else showed him, and felt uneasy, not knowing why.

"It is time" Mufasa said towards Simba. Simba hadn't heard that voice in so long and had almost forgotten what it sounded like.

"Then let us begin" Simba said. Now it was Mufasa's turn to hear Simba's voice and didn't know where the months went where Simba matured and his voice deepened. Mufasa walked down from Pride Rock with Simba in tow, giving Sarafina and the cubs an uneasy look, sending chills down their spines.

"Uncle…" Tama said as Mufasa walked past them, catching his attention. Tama looked up to see she had gained her king's attention. "May I request that you allow us to be present for the trails…?" Tama asked wearily of how her uncle may react.

To everyone's surprise, Mufasa nodded. Sarafina had been expecting him to shoot her down as he had shot everyone else down over the months. Mufasa continued down the path that led away from pride rock with everyone now in tow.

Mufasa grinned at the thought of the first trail he had set up. He knew Simba was physically strong, but he had much to improve on his decision making. _'Let's see who you really are…'_ Mufasa thought as he walked in the direction of the first trail, knowing the first trial would almost be impossible to pass.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

After walking for what seemed like a mile, everyone started to notice that Mufasa was leading them towards the gorge. Everyone was trying to think of what Mufasa had planned that would involve it to be in the gorge. As far as they were concerned, it was just a long wide crack in the earth that went on for miles.

Upon entering the gorge, everyone but Mufasa and Simba was looking up at the sides of the gorge, observing how the towered over them making them feel small. Mufasa led the group down a small path in the gorge, one they didn't recognize and was only about three lions width wide.

At the end of the path, it divided into two smaller paths, that led into their own separate tunnels that were pitch black. Mufasa turned around and motioned for the prince to step up to the dividing paths.

"You're first trial will push your senses to the limit. Both paths lead underground, but only one leads out of the gorge. Choose the right tunnel, and you will come out on the other side. Choose wrongly, and you will run into a dead end. There is little air down there. So you can only last half an hour down there before the lack of oxygen renders you useless. That's just enough time to come out of the right path, but if you choose wrong, you'll suffocate… and die" Mufasa said.

Upon hearing this, everyone but Simba thought it was stupid. It was pitch black with no way of telling which one lead out. And what made it worse was that if he chooses wrong, he would die.

"You may begin" Mufasa said, stepping out of the way, allowing for Simba to observe the two paths.

Simba stepped up and at first glance, it was impossible to tell which tunnel was the right one. Simba focused his hearing, so much that he could hear everyone behind him breathing. Simba's plan was simple, yet genius. One side leads to the surface, meaning that if he could hear winds from the other side blowing into the cave, he'd know which one led out.

"This is stupid" Tojo whispered to Malka, in a voice so quiet that even Malka, who was standing right next to him, had trouble hearing him.

"Quiet" Simba said turning around looking at Tojo. Everyone was surprised. They thought they may have heard something, yet they thought it was just the uncomfortable silence getting to them. Malka had no idea how Simba was able to hear that, seeing as he almost didn't pick it up himself.

Simba looked back towards the two tunnels. He focused his hearing towards the right tunnel. Nothing. He focussed his hearing towards the left tunnel and could hear a faint humming sound. Simba did this a few more times and concluded that the left tunnel had to be the right one.

"I'm ready" Simba said. The only person who knew the right answer was Mufasa, and everyone else was just randomly guessing which one it could be. Nala was silently freaking out right now. It was a Fifty Fifty chance Simba would live or die, and she was not ok with those odds.

Nala felt a paw on her shoulder and looked up to see her mother giving her a comforting look, telling her that it would be ok, yet she had no idea if it would be ok or not.

"You May proceed. Best of luck Prince Simba" Mufasa said, purposely not saying 'son'. Without looking back, or saying another word, Simba entered the left tunnel, watching as the light from outside slowly started to dim, knowing that there was a possibility of him never seeing daylight again.

Mufasa saw him enter the cave and figured that he must have guessed right, but what he Didn't tell Simba was that the left tunnel divided into three more tunnels, with only one of the three leading to the surface. So this time he only had a thirty-three percent chance instead of fifty to guess right.

"We'll go to the exit of the one tunnel that leads out and wait for him to come out… If he comes out" Mufasa said. Sarafina glared at Mufasa. That last comment was completely unnecessary and the only reason he said it was to make everyone even more uneasy.

Everyone got in line behind there king, all praying that their friend would make it out ok.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was walking down the tunnel, listening to the wind on the other side. He knew he picked the right tunnel yet something wasn't right. "Hmm" Simba said loudly, seeing if there would be an echo. He heard it echo along the walls of the tunnel, but he noticed that there was a second divide somewhere, as some of the sounds bounced off of a dead end and come back towards him.

"Perfect" Simba muttered, knowing that he was going to have to make a life or death decision once again.

After twenty minutes of walking, Simba started to feel the lack of oxygen affect him. He was beyond the point of safe return and had to keep on pushing. What made matters worse was that it was now officially pitch black. He could barely see five feet in front of him in the low amounts of light.

Simba was walking when he saw the sides of the tunnel start to get bigger. He noticed three new tunnels in front of him. At this point, listening for the wind was pointless. He was too close to the source and it sounded like it was all around him.

Simba walked up to the far left path... "Hey!" Simba shouted. He heard his 'hey' echo and echo, before returning back to him. "Nope" Simba said knowing it was a dead end. He walked to the far right one, purposely skipping the middle one, and stood in front of him. "Hey!" Simba shouted once again. He heard it echo over and over again, but it never came back. Simba knew this path wasn't a dead end, and went to enter it, but stopped short.

He looked towards the middle tunnel, knowing he hadn't tested it yet. "Hey!" He shouted. Simba didn't want to take any chances of skipping over the right path, and was relieved when he heard his echo come back towards him.

Simba stood in front of the far right tunnel and sniffed. The air down this tunnel, the one that wasn't a dead end, was fresher than the air around him. "Screw it" Simba said as he started to walk down the tunnel.

Simba had been walking down the far right tunnel when he stepped on something and cut his right paw open. Simba grunted in pain but focused on not wailing around and wasting what little oxygen he had left on panicking. Simba looked down at his paw and saw it was bleeding, but he could manage for now before having to wrap it.

Simba continued walking, ignoring the shooting pain in his paw. It was nearing thirty minutes and the amount of dust he had inhaled was starting to beat him down. He could feel his trachea become dry and gritty and his lungs becoming heavy.

Simba was walking when he noticed that the tunnel was becoming brighter. "Light" He muttered. He smelled the air once more, confirming he wasn't going crazy when smelling that it was much fresher than before. Simba continued to walk and looked down as the light was burning his dilated eyes.

When his eyes adjusted, he saw thatch and other dried up plants. A sign he was at the surface. He looked further and saw his father, Sarafina, and the rest of the cubs looking around helplessly as it had already been thirty minutes.

Simba's throat burned, His paw hurt, and his head was dizzy. Focussing on each step he took and he soon found himself exiting the tunnel and meeting the eyes of an anxious group. He looked down and saw that his paw was now covered in blood, and knew he would have to do something about it now that he was out of the tunnel.

Simba was broken from his thought when six anxious cubs tackled him out of excitement and relief of seeing their friend return alive and almost unscathed.

Sarafina tore the cubs off Simba as the king had not yet said whether he had passed or not, yet he clearly had.

"Well Done" Mufasa said not expecting Simba to make it. He wasn't trying to kill Simba and was preparing to go in the tunnel himself and drag him out, but right as he was about to leave Simba came out himself. He wasn't lying when he said he would suffocate and die, but he would pass out after thirty minutes and die after a few hours. Mufasa left that last part out to make it more suspenseful. "Most impressive indeed" Mufasa added. He noticed the cut on Simba's paw and decided to make their talk quick, as Simba should go to Rafiki to get his paw checked.

"You showed that you have mastered your senses and were able to keep calm in stressful a situation" Mufasa said. Most people would go crazy inside that dark claustrophobic cave, and would soon find themselves running out of oxygen, yet Simba stayed calm and relied on instincts. "You have successfully completed your first trial. Your next trial will be soon…" Mufasa said being very vague as to what he had planned. "Get some rest and get your paw checked" Mufasa added before turning around and walking away.

Sarafina was confused when he said 'Get your paw checked' and looked down towards Simba's right paw and saw that it was partly covered in blood and had a gash on the underside where he stepped on a sharp rock.

"Simba, come with me to Rafiki's tree to get your paw looked at" Sarafina said, now getting the attention of six cubs, who looked down at his paw and saw it was bleeding. "Nala… we'll talk when I get back" Sarafina said.

"I can take him" Tojo offered.

"No, I can do it" Nala asked as she stepped up towards her mother, completely overthrowing Tojo's request.

"How about this. Tama and Kula can take him and the rest of you can either wait at pride rock or mess around while I talk with my daughter" Sarafina said, knowing Nala wouldn't like the idea of Simba having to go with Tama and Kula.

"Why do they have to do it? Can't it be one of them?" Nala said motioning towards Chumvi, Malka, and Tojo. Sarafina knew Nala would protest and would use an old trick to get her to cooperate.

"Is there something wrong with Tama and Kula going that would make you choose those three over them?" Sarafina asked, putting Nala in the spotlight.

"Well…" Nala started, but couldn't say she was jealous that they were going to be with Simba and she wasn't. "No" Nala finished. Sarafina moved on pretending that nothing had happened.

"Very well. Tama and Kula, Help Simba get to Rafiki's tree. You three, enjoy the rest of your day" Sarafina said smiling at the cubs. "And you. You're coming with me" Sarafina said as she walked away, waiting for her daughter to follow. Nala sighed and started to follow her mother, looking back to see that Simba, Tama, and Kula had already started walking towards Rafiki's tree.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was limping down the path while he listened in on Tama and Kulas conversation. The mindset of suffocating in a cave was gone, so the pain he felt in his paw was a lot worse now.

Tama was distracted from her conversation with Kula when she saw that Simba was limping severely now, almost putting no weight on his right paw. Kula noticed that Tama got distracted by something else, and turned her attention to see what she saw.

"Need any help?" Kula said as she trotted up beside Simba. Simba stopped walking for a second, opening and closing his paw. Tama also trotted up beside him and was waiting for him to respond.

"I'll be fine, just give me a second" Simba said. He was visually in pain each time he opened his paw, causing the muscle to expand and stretch the cut on his paw. "Alright" he added as he continued to walk, not limping as bad anymore. Tama and Kula exchanged a confused glance, wondering why Simba was choosing to be in pain rather than just accept their help.

They were walking again when Tama noticed bloody paw prints on the ground. She noticed that his paw was starting to bleed more now and he was creating a trail. "Simba I seriously insist you let us help you" Tama said as she the imprint of a bloody paw every few feet or so.

"It's not much further. I'll be ok" Simba said. Kula watched as Tamas facial expression went from sincere to irritated. Kula knew that something was most likely going to go down and silently waited for Tama to snap.

"Now I'm telling you. Let us help you" Tama said sounding much sterner. Simba sighed in defeat. He had a lot on his mind and didn't want to argue with her.

"Ok" Simba said. Tama was a little surprised that he just submitted that easily, without even trying to argue his point any further, but didn't let it set in. Tama had already seen enough of Simba's blood in the past and wasn't fond of the idea of having to see anymore.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

After only five minutes, the three cubs arrived at Rafiki's tree and watched as Rafiki swooped down from a branch and hanged on upside down holding on with his feet. "And to what do I owe de pleasure of seeing de prince and these two beautiful lionesses who come wit him? Rafiki said with a smile, before noticing Simba's paw.

"Simba cut his paw and we need your help closing the wound" Tama said looking up at the baboon.

"Hmm… I see I see. Well come on up and let's see if old Rafiki can fix his paw" Rafiki said before swinging back up into his tree, waiting for his guests to come in.

After a minute or so he saw the three cubs enter, Simba getting assistance from the two of course. "Over here young one!" Rafiki said patting the ground next to him. Simba limped over to where he was and sat down, with his right paw in the air so he could inspect it.

Rafiki grabbed Simba's paw and started to inspect it. "Hmm… Yes… I see…Mhm… How interesting yes…" Rafiki said muttering to himself. The three exchanged confused looks as Rafiki muttered on and on. "I tink I see de problem! You cut your paw" Rafiki said looking at Simba.

Simba gave Rafiki a confused look as it wasn't already obvious enough he had cut it. "Yea… I know. Can you fix it" Simba said wondering why Rafiki had told him something so obvious.

"Well, why didn't you just say so!" Rafiki said laughing as he jumped up from a vine and swung to the other side of his tree, going through some stuff. Simba looked over towards the two females and just gave them blank looks. He remembered Tama telling him why they were here, yet he just made it sound as if she didn't.

"Ah-Ha!" Rafiki said as he found what he was looking for. A porcupine needle and some tightly twisting twine he would use to close the wound. He once observed humans doing this before he came to the pride lands and decided to see if it worked and give it a shot himself, and had been using it for years since he found out it did.

"Dis will hurt, but I know you can manage. You're strong body and soul. Why de ladies like you…" Rafiki said just loud enough so that everyone could hear. Simba refused to make eye contact with anyone as Rafiki had been successful at embarrassing him.

Simba grunted when Rafiki pushed the tip of the needle under his skin to start closing the wound. Simba looked down as Rafiki glided the needle under and through the cut, bring the two pieces of skin and muscle back together.

Tama and Kula watch, cringing at how much that must hurt, but were surprised to see that Simba wasn't even flinching. Tama knew that Simba wasn't like the other guys. He didn't try to act big and tuff, for two reasons. One he was already big and tuff, and the second being that everyone already liked him the way he was. But right now he wasn't pretending that it didn't hurt, it just truly didn't hurt him...

"Done!" Rafiki shouted, startling everyone a bit. "Wasn't so bad ey?" Rafiki said wiping Simba's blood off his hands. Rafiki took one last look at Simba's paw before sending him on his way. "Hope we meet on better terms next time" Rafiki said as the three cubs left his tree.

 **(Meanwhile with Nala)**

After watching the three walk away, Nala trotted up beside her mother, knowing she was going to be yelled at. She looked up at her mother, trying to see if you could see what was on her mind, but couldn't see past her stoic look.

After a few minutes of walking, Sarafina abruptly turned around and started to drill into her daughter. "I know you love Simba, and he means everything to you, But you better be careful or you'll find yourself single real quick" Sarafina said, startling Nala.

"What do you mean by that?" Nala asked, not knowing if her mother was warning or threatening her.

"I mean that If you keep acting jealous whenever Simba does anything with the other girls, your friendship with them will be broken and Simba will be conflicted over who he will have to side with, You, Or his friends" Sarafina said making sure Nala understood.

"I'm not jealous" Nala said stubbornly.

"Yes, you are. You start to go after your friends for just wanted to hang out with Simba. Not to mention you freaked out when you found out he simply sleep with Tama!" Sarafina said raising her voice.

"I had every right to be mad! He slept with another girl!" Nala said not understanding how he mother didn't understand that.

"Exactly, he just slept with another girl. Nothing inappropriate went on between them. Tell me this when was the last time you slept with another male besides Simba?" Sarafina said wanting to prove her point further.

Nala was reluctant at first but spoke up after a few seconds. "A week ago…" She said although she had a good reason.

"And who was that with?" Sarafina said continuing her assault.

"Tojo…" Nala replied irritated slightly that her mother was doing this with her.

"And why did you sleep with him?" Sarafina said showing no mercy.

"Because it was cold and Simba wasn't with me!" Nala said getting tired of her mothers game.

"So it's ok when you sleep with other lions but it's not ok when Simba does?" Sarafina said making it sound a lot worse than it was.

"Well…" Nala started but stopped short not knowing what to say. "So what do you want me to do? Just let him snuggle up with Tama and Kula?!" Nala replied angrily.

"Yes" Sarafina said making it sound simple.

"No! I will not stand by while those harlots sleep with my lion!" Nala said disgusted by what her mother had just suggested.

"One! They are young respectable lionesses, not harlots. I don't ever want to hear you call them that again! And two, Simba isn't 'your lion'. You don't control what he does, nor will you" Sarafina said sternly.

Nala took a moment to calm down. The dangerous game known as love was just tearing her in a thousand different directions, and she was just lost. "I just love him so much, and all I want for him is to be happy" Nala said.

"How is he going to be happy if you try to control his life?" Sarafina said softly, giving Nala a cold hard reality check. Nala just stood there, horrified by the fact that she really had been trying to control his life the past few days.

"He won't be…" Nala said shamefully. Sarafina hated having to see her daughter this way and quickly moved to cheer her up.

"But give him more freedom, and he will be" Sarafina added quickly, attempting to cheer Nala up. Sarafina just feared that with Nala being so young and irresponsible, she was going to end up ruining her future with Simba, and all she needed was a reality check.

"I will" Nala said. All she wanted was for this conversation to be over she could check up on Simba. All she had been doing today was worry about him and wanted to be able to relax knowing he was safe.

The two sat there for a few moments, waiting to see if the other one was going to say something before Sarafina decided to speak up first. "Simbas probably done now. You should go make sure he's ok" Sarafina said, knowing Nala wouldn't argue that. Without wasting another second, Nala turned around and bolted towards the path Simba would be on, eagerly awaiting to check on him.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

"So…" Tama said breaking the silence. Currently, Simba, Tama, and Kula were walking back to Pride Rock to get some rest, but the silence finally got to Tama and she just had to speak up. "How did you know what tunnel was the right one Simba" She asked matching his pace to look him in the eyes.

"Wind" Simba said, leaving Tama with more questions than she had before. If Tama had one antelope for everytime Simba left her with more questions than before, she would never need to hunt a day in her life again.

"There isn't any wind underground silly" Kula said, speaking for both her and Tama.

"No, But I could hear the wind from the other side in the left tunnel" Simba said. Both Tama and Kula didn't know what to think. They would have never thought to try to sense something like that and would have just ended up guessing one. It put to show just how equipped Simba was to survive on his own at his age.

"So how come your hearings so good?" Tama asked, knowing he already had good hearing but was surprised he had the ability to hear the wind in a tunnel like that.

"I trained my hearing so that I could hear when you guys came to bully me when we were younger, so I had time to run away" Simba said. Tama and Kula exchanged guilty looks, wishing they hadn't asked that question.

"Ohh…" Tama said, noticing how awkward they were acting.

"And If my hearing is correct, were about to have company" Simba said. The two females went silent for a second and tried to listen for a sign that someone was approaching. Sure enough, after a few seconds, they heard what sounded like something running through the grass.

Nala came flying out of the bush, not expecting Simba to be standing in front of her and crashed right into him. Tama and Kula watched as Nala came flying out of nowhere and took Simba out in the process. The two cubs ran over to their friends to see if they were alright, and caught them in a very embarrassing situation.  
Nala was sprawled on top of Simba, resting her body weight on his chest and stomach, with their faces mere inches away from one another. "Sorry to intrude on your heated makeout session" Kula said snickering a bit.

"We can give you too some privacy if you'd like" Tama said snickering a bit herself. Nala quickly got off Simba and dusted herself off, still embarrassed by what just happened. She quickly checked him over and saw that he was fine, and went argue what her friends said.

"We didn't kiss" Nala said trying to get them to stop.

"Bet you wished you kissed him" Kula said smirking.

"No!" Nala said annoyed her friends wouldn't stop.

"Come on Nala, we all know you can't resist him" Tama said giving her a flirtatious smiling, blinking her eyes a few time fast, just to embarrass her further.

"Will you two quit it!" Nala pleaded, but just set herself up for more torment.

"Very well, we'll let you and Simba get back to business I suppose" Kula said smirking. Now Nala was in misery. Being embarrassed and degraded within five minutes was something she had never had to deal with before.

"Hmm" Nala said, realizing that she was going to put the fire out by fueling it… which made no sense… "Well thank you. Simba is a phenomenal kisser and the perfect sleeping partner. And you're right, I can't resist his warm safe grasp, his soft golden fur, and how cute and shy he acts. It's no wonder you're jealous of us" Nala said, helping Simba up and nuzzling into the crook of his neck.

Simba had no idea as to what in the hell was going on. He was just tempted to sit back and let the lionesses do the talking.

Kula and Tama were wondering what just happened. Nala just took all there teasing, and turned around and spit flames at them. That honestly was the last thing they had expected Nala to do.

"We're not jealous of you!" Both Tama and Kula said in unison.

"Well, thanks for stopping with the teasing" Nala said, looking up and giving Simba a small kiss on the chin. Both Kula and Tama gave her faces that read 'Really…', knowing she had done that in front of them on purpose.

"Come on, let's head back to Pride Rock, it's getting late" Nala said, thankful that today was almost over and everyone was safe.

"We'll settle this tomorrow" Tama said with a playful smirk, receiving a nod from Kula as well.

"Sorry, I think I have plans to sleep in with Simba all of tomorrow" Nala said, earning another 'really' face from the two.

Simba was surprised to see that Nala was acting differently around them. She didn't seem to try and stop them from interacting with him. Simba didn't know what changed but just enjoyed it while it last, hoping it would never go away.

Simba watched as the girls bickered on and on talking about relationships and other topics that were boy repellents, knowing that he was going to be in for one hell of a night…

 **Man… Poor Simba. Nothing sucks more for a dude than to be caught in a conversation with girls about relationships…** ** _(Shutters)_** **... Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed this chapter and are enjoying this story overall. So in chapter 8 I may or may not introduce Zazu into this story, depending on what I decide to write about, but he will be in the later chapters. But in chapter 8 you will see a lot more of the cubs who haven't got much time in the spotlight. Also for people wondering about Chumvi, that's was chapter eights going to be about... So the next trial will be in chapter 9, and the third and final trial will be in chapter 11. So with all that said, Y'all have a good one! Mr_Toast Out!**


	8. Mom?

**Simba's Pain Chapter 8**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back Y'all! So like I said at the end of Chapter 7, there won't be a trial this chapter, and I'll be focusing on... other things. Also, I don't know if any of you have realized but I drop a lot of clues as to what the future is going to be like, so maybe keep an eye out for them. Like always if you have any ideas or comments write a review or shoot me a PM and I'll be sure to get back to you as soon as I can. With all that said, Enjoy!**

 **Also, this is just so stuff makes more sense…**

 **Bold:** information or A/N

 _ **Bold Italic:**_ Setting

 **Thoughts:** _'Example'_

 **Dream Speech:** _"Example"_

 **Bold Underline:** Very Important, Do NOT Skip

Upon arriving at Pride Rock, Tama, Kula, and Nala noticed that Simba had stopped about fifty yards behind them, not wanted to enter Pride Rock. They sighed knowing he still didn't feel comfortable staying here, but their parents would kill them if they found out they snuck out at night.

"You can stay with him tonight, I'll let your mother's know where you'll be, so long as he's with you the entire time" Sarafina said, having been waiting outside for them to return, startling them in the process. They all swore they didn't see her up there on the way in, and unless she could turn invisible, she just did some next level sneaky stuff.

"We owe you one" Tama said still wondering how she did that. Tama looked back in the cave and saw that everyone was already asleep, and figured it best to just stay at Simba's hideout tonight.

"Don't mention it. Now run along, Simba is waiting for you" Sarafina said motioning towards the friend that stayed behind. She watched as her daughter was ok with the idea of Tama and Kula staying with her and Simba tonight, and was both surprised and proud that her daughter turned around and tried fixing her mistakes so quickly.

Simba watched as his three friends started to make their way towards him, wondering how their mothers were ok with them staying out at night at such a young age. Even though the pride lands were well protected, there were stills risks of lions cubs staying out alone at night.

"Are your... mothers… ok with you sleeping out tonight?" Simba asked making sure they weren't going to get in trouble. Everyone saw right past his kind gesture to make sure they weren't going to get in trouble and focused on the split second pause there was when he said 'mothers'.

"Yea" Tama said. "Auntie said she would tell our mothers where we were" Tama added. Simba shrugged, figuring that there was no point in waiting any longer and starting to walk towards his hideout.

This walk brought back a lot of unpleasant memories for Simba. It was dark now and he was walking on a very familiar path. This was the path he would always use to get to Pride Rock when he was younger and scavenging for food.

Simba noticed something in the dirt and slowed down almost to a stop.

"You ok?" Kula asked noticing how Simba paced halted almost to a dead stop. The three lionesses watched Simba, who didn't even hear Kula and was focusing on something in the dirt. They saw him pick up a stone, one that looked like it had been carved into by another rock.

Nala immediately knew what it was. It was one of his old friends, back when he didn't have real ones and resorted to making fake ones to entertain him. Nala walked up beside him and nuzzled into his slightly, letting him know those days were behind him.

Tama and Kula were wondering what was going on, but just as quick as it happened, it was over. Simba put the rock down and continued on walking. Tama and Kula looked at the rock and saw nothing special about, causing them to have more and more questions about him.

After a few more minutes of walking, they finally all made it to Simba's hideout and wasted no time getting to sleep. Simba and Nala slept on the rock they always did, Tama laid down under the tree, and Kula laid up against a rock to make herself feel more secure.

All of them quickly fell asleep, where not so pleasant dreams awaited…

 _ **(Dreamscape, Tama… First Person)**_

 _Once inside the cave and out of the rain, I finally took a moment to close my eyes and let the adrenaline rush come down. A few seconds later I could smell the ever so sweet scent of blood in the air._

 _I scrambled to get up and checked myself to see if I was bleeding. I saw I had some blood on my arm but noticed that it wasn't mine. I heard a groan as Simba attempted to get back on his feet but collapsed in the process._

 _I ran over to him and could make out the sticky red substance on the cave floor. I looked at his chest and saw that there was a deep gash near his diaphragm. I started to panic, the wound was bleeding relentlessly and I didn't know the first thing about first aid._

 _I knew that he would bleed out in minutes if I wasn't able to stop the bleeding. I attempted to cover it with my paws but it didn't work, blood was still leaking out the side. "Simba… no no no no no" I said frantically as a few sobs escaped my mouth. I had already blamed myself for this accident due to the fact that I was the reason he backed up and ended up slipping in the process._

 _I was trying desperately to find a solution. The sounds of rains outside made it impossible to think. The darkness and tears in my eyes made it impossible to see. The rate of blood loss made it impossible to hope there would be any chance he would survive._

 _"I'm so sorry…" I said as everything I had done failed to work. I felt so pathetic that I couldn't help my friend and he was probably going to die because I was unable to do anything to stop the bleeding._

 _After a few a second I no longer felt the rise and fall of his chest. I quickly brought my ear to his chest while still applying pressure to the wound, trying to listen for a heartbeat, and my world collapsed when I didn't hear one._

 _That was it. Simba was dead. He died because I was too pathetic and useless to know what to do. I had failed him. The reason he was dead, was because of me. "Simba!" I screamed shaking his body in a futile attempt to bring him back to life._

 _"Simba… No... please… Come back!" I screamed at his dead body sobbing. It was all my fault. If I had just known what to do, he would still be alive… It was all my fault._

 _"Nooooo!"_

 _ **(Reality)**_

"Nooooo!" Tama screamed as she shot up in her sleep, sweating and panting heavily. That had been one of the worst and most realistic nightmares she had ever had, and right now she was just terrified. Devestad that she had lost her best friend, so she thought.

Everyone woke up upon hearing someone scream, wondering what had just happened. They all looked around and saw that Tama was standing up, panting, sweating and… Crying..?

Tama crying was something that just did not happen, so to see her sobbing to herself just made everyone take a moment to wonder what could possibly do this to her.

Simba quickly made his way over to her, wanting to see if he couldn't get her to calm down and try to find out what was bothering her. Tama looked up to see something she didn't expect to see. Simba... walking towards her… alive. She saw him die. She felt the blood on her paws and heard the silence in his chest. She watched him die, he was dead, she was sure of it, yet here he was, alive…

Tama then realized that it was just a nightmare, and remember the events that followed that dreadful night, but the pain in her heart just didn't go away.

Without wasting another second she ran into his chest, hugging him as if her life depended on it. "I'm so sorry" Tama said crying into his chest, which was muffled from his chest and her sobbing. She kept repeating 'Im so sorry' Into his chest, making everyone wonder what she was talking about.

Nala and Kula were honestly a little scared right now. For something to make Tama cry, and act the way she was right now, was just beyond the worst possible thing they could imagine. Tama never cried, Never. So right now they were worried sick for their friend.

"Hey, Shhhhh… It's ok" Simba said in a soothing voice to get Tama to calm down. He too was concerned for her. Here she was, crying into his chest, telling him she was sorry, yet he had no idea what she had to be sorry about.

"No It's not ok! I failed you, I let you down! I was so pathetic and weak, and because of that you almost died!" Tama said, which sounded muffled again. Now Simba was really concerned. He had no clue was she was going on about. She hadn't failed or let him down, she most certainly wasn't pathetic or weak, and he hadn't come close to death in over a weak.

"Hey, It's ok, Im fine. What's the matter" Simba asked. Tama just buried her head deeper into his chest, trying to seek comfort from that horrendous dream.

"The night of the storm! When you got hurt I was useless and lucky you hadn't passed out or else you would be dead!" Tama said. Simba, Nala, and Kula realized that Tama had a nightmare about the time Simba cut his chest opened and how he could have died. None of them thought that she would still be suffering from that. That was over a week ago and they had all moved passed it, but apparently, Tama hadn't

"Tama, can we take a walk, just the two of us?" Simba said, wanting to talk to her in private. He looked over towards Nala and Kula and saw they nodded towards him, telling him that he should tend to Tama. Nala and Kula were some of the most loyal and caring friend's anyone could have. They knew that this took priority over them, and neither was stupid enough to go tell anyone about this, allowing for them to be left alone.

Tama just nodded, before breaking the hug and walking quickly into the bush, not wanting Nala or Kula to see her like this. Simba gave the two lionesses a thankful smile before trotting after Tama, knowing she was waiting for him.

 **(TLKTLTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba and Tama had been walking for a while, in silence, neither of them knowing what to say to the other. Sarafina had been sleeping not too far from them, just in case anything happened and woke up when she heard one of them scream. She was currently following the two, wanting to see how Simba would handle this situation.

"I'm sorry" Tama said once again. Tama had nothing to be sorry about and Simba knew this and felt bad that she was beating herself over for it.

"Tama, what are you scared of?" Simba asked, already knowing the answer. Tama didn't like talking about her fears, no one did, but she trusted Simba, and she could talk about anything with him, knowing her secret would be safe with him.

"I fear losing the people I love. I fear a lack of control. I fear not being able to help someone when they need help the most. So everything that happened that night, I feared" Tama said ashamed. Simba knew she didn't find it easy to tell him that, so only wanted to make it fair.

"I fear losing the people I love, hurting the people I love, that my mother never loved me, and not being able to help people when they need help the most" Simba said. Tama was surprised that he just told her his fears, something people didn't do as it made them feel weak and powerless.

"I-" Tama started but felt the urge to cry return. Tama didn't show any weakness around the other cubs, always wanted to appear strong and dominate, but now she had so many emotions built up, they were starting to show. She felt Simba embrace her in a hug as her voice cracked, giving her the power to continue. "I felt so helpless. Everything I had tried to stop the bleeding failed. I mean what if it happens again? I just couldn't live with myself knowing you died and I had a chance of saving you" Tama finished. Simba knew the kind of pain she felt and knew what she was going through.

"I trust you with my life, and I know that I could trust you to save me anyday. You're so strong and brave Tama. If something ever happened to me, or anyone for that matter, there would be nothing that could stop you from getting to them" Simba said, making it clear that he didn't think she was weak.

Tama broke the hug and backed up to look at Simba. She moved her paw up to his chest and rested in there. She felt his heartbeat. It was strong and steady, never missing a beat and beating with absolute confidence.

"Will you teach me how to fix wounds like those" Tama asked as she kept feeling his heartbeat, which helped reassure her that it would take more than just a cut to stop it from doing its job.

"I'll teach you everything I know" Simba said, bringing a smile to her face. The smile was short lived as she remembered something she wanted to tell him, but just feared he would take it the wrong way.

"Simba I need to tell you something, and I just need to listen. Promise me you'll let me finish and won't run away. Promise me you'll still be my friend afterward" Tama said seriously. "Ok" Simba said. Tama wasn't satisfied with his response, she wanted to hear the words directly.

Quickly, she moved her paw from his chest to his cheek, moving his head so that he was looking directly at her. "Say the words… Please" Tama pleaded, something she had never done before. Simba saw the looked in her eyes and heard the sound of her voice, this was something that she needed.

"I promise" Simba said In a serious tone. Tama took a deep breath in, and let it out. _'Here goes nothing'_ Tama though as she went to tell him. She moved her paw from his cheek back down to the ground, wanting all points of contact for this part.

"As of recently, I've had this special feeling around you… I wasn't sure what it was at first, but now I do. Simba… I… I… I love you. Not in the way that I love Malka or you love Nala, but I love you like a brother. Ever since I met you, you've always been there for me when I needed you the most, and you've always been so kind and understanding of me. When we were a lot younger, I always tried to make it seem like I was the alpha cub, but I needed a break from appearing as hardcore and dominate once and awhile. I always wanted a person in my life that I could go to for emotional support that wasn't my mother, that wouldn't judge me and could relate to me. Upon getting to know you I realized that the person I was looking for was you. Now I regret saying this because I sound stupid and -" Tama was saying seriously at first but then started to lose courage and fail at the end, knowing that Simba probably thought something was wrong with her for loving him before she was pulled into a hug by Simba.

"I love you in the exact same way funny enough. I didn't know what this feeling was at first or what to do with it. I've always wondered what having a sister was like, and now I do, because you are my sister. You may not be my biological sister, but that's how I've always seen you. You always listen to me and understand me. You always stand up for me and protect me. There is nothing that I could do to ever express how grateful I am to have a person like you in my life, and I don't think you sound stupid, I think you sound brave" Simba said, shocking Tama.

Tama had always seen Simba as a brother, and to be told that he always saw her as a sister made her feel lucky to have a guy like Simba. There wasn't anything she couldn't ask or say to Simba, he just understood her and accepted her for who she was.

"What you just told me was perhaps the bravest thing I've ever seen or heard someone do. You put your friendship and soul on the line to tell me something that had been bothering you and that takes more courage than being in the front lines charging at your enemy" Simba added.

Tama now hugged him back, feeling as if the world was spinning around her. She didn't know how you manage to obtain a friend like Simba, or what debt she may have to pay off later in life, but she was just happy she managed to get that off her chest without losing her best friend.

"Simba…" Tama asked, grabbing his attention. "Yea?" He responded. "Could you do me a favor and not tell anyone about this. Or mention me crying?" Tama asked, slightly fearing what other people might think about her being in love with two boys that were the same age with neither being directly related to her, in two different ways.

"Don't worry, Your secrets safe with me" He said. The two broke the hug and started walking back to his hideout. It was still a few hours before dawn and the two decided to head back and get some rest while they still could. No point in wasting precious sleep.

Sarafina had not seen that coming at all. When Tama said the words 'I love you', She swore she could have felt the blood run cold in her veins. She knew that Simba and Tama shared a special bond, but never knew that it had progressed so quickly. She knew that this secret had to stay between them. While Nala didn't mind Tama being around Simba anymore or at least was making attempts to, if she found out Tama loved Simba and he loved her back, even if it was only a brother-sister thing, she would most likely erupt.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala and Kula had been waiting around for some time for Simba and Tama to return, and were happy and surprised to see that the two were walking back towards them, with Tama looking much, Much, happier.

"So I assume we fixed the problem?" Nala asked approaching the two, making sure Tama was ok.

"Yup" Simba said walking up to Nala, nuzzling her. Nala was taken back by this gesture. Simba was a pretty shy cub, and normal she was the one that would start a nuzzle, not him, yet she didn't complain and returned it.

"Well glad that worked out well. You had us worried. We'd never seen you cry like that before" Kula said glad to hear her friend was doing well. Tama nodded thanking her, but then remember something really important.

"Don't you two dare say a word about me crying or I'll make you both wish you-" Tama was saying until Kula cut her off.

"We wouldn't dare" Kula said getting defensive, knowing that if she said a word she would be signing her own death warrant.

"Well now that that's done, let's get some sleep" Simba said lying down. Tama went to lie down under the tree again, but the idea of having another nightmare made her stop. "

Simba?" Tama asked, getting his attention. "Is it ok if I stay with you?" Tama asked not wanting to have to go through anything like that ever again. Simba looked over towards Nala, wanting to know what she thought. As long as she thought it was ok he didn't mind. He saw Nala give him a nod, saying she approved. Simba wondered why she wasn't acting like she before. Not even a week ago she was yelling at him for doing the same thing, and now she was allowing it.

"Sure" Simba said, causing Tama to feel relieved. Tama trotted over to where he was and lied down never to him. This rock reminded her a lot of Pride Rock and made it feel like she was back there in her normal spot.

"Hey Nala, Think we could talk it private real quick?" Kula asked, wanting to know why Nala wasn't jealous of Tama and her anymore. For the past month Nala had been protective of him, making sure that they kept their space, now she didn't seem to care.

"Sure" Nala said with a smile, surprising everybody once again. Nala and Kula made there way away from the hideout and out towards the savannah, to talk about… who knows what, leaving Simba and Tama behind.

Simba went to ask Tama a question but saw that she was already asleep. Simba smiled seeing that she was ok, and quickly followed her lead, drifting off into sleep.

Sarafina saw that Simba and Tama were all set, and started to follow Nala and Kula, wanting to know what was on those young lionesses minds.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

After walking for a few minutes, and well out of earshot of anyone, Kula stopped walking and turned around to begin talking with her friend. "So the reason I dragged you out here this early in the mourning is that I just want to know what's changed with you and Simba" Kula said hoping Nala didn't mind talking about it.

"What do you mean?" Nala asked, wondering what Kula meant by changing.

"Well… It's just that in the past month, and mostly this past week, you've been really jealous and protective of Simba around me and Tama, and now you don't mind Tama sleeping with him. It just caught me by surprise and I was just wondering what's different now" She said calmly. Nala then realized what she meant by change and went to give her the full story.

"Well, you're right when you said I was being jealous and acting protective. But after I got some sense knocked into me, I've realized that Tama's in a relationship with Malka, and you've got your eyes on Chumvi, so there's no reason to be jealous anymore" Nala said.

Kulas' face went pale when Nala said she had her eyes on Chumvi. She didn't even know how she knew that. "How did you know I like Chumvi?" Kula asked surprised, seeing as she hadn't told anyone about it.

"Oh come on! You make it so obvious!" Nala said laughing a bit. "While the boys are idiots when it comes to love, we girls can sniff a crush out a mile away" Nala said. Kula had no idea she had been that obvious.

"Oh…" Kula said a little surprised it was that obvious. "Well it's good to have to good old understanding, not jealous, Nala back" Kula said with a smile. Nala gave a smile as well, glad to see her friend was happy she changed.

Sarafina honestly didn't expect Nala to recognize her mistake so soon, a sign of true maturity. Sarafina felt a pain in her chest, one of pride, love, and sadness. Her little Nala was not so little anymore, and she was starting to grow up and become more dependent. Sarafina felt a small urge to cry. Soon Nala would be almost fully dependent, and wouldn't need her for anything. The thought of her oldest child not needing her around anymore made her sad, yet she knew Nala would always love her. Her thoughts traveled to her youngest, Mheetu, who was also starting to mature, yet he was still dependent on her and had much to learn. Sarafina made her way back to Pride Rock, wanting to give Mheetu a visit.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Upon entering Pride Rock, Sarafina saw her youngest, Mheetu, playing with Tojo. Mheetu was still small and Sarafina didn't like the idea of him going outside of Pride Rock by himself just yet. "Good mourning mommy" Mheetu said as he tried to pounce on Tojo, but Tojo simply moved out of the way.

"Good mourning" Sarafina said back to him. She looked at her youngest, still glad that he was young and hadn't grown up so fast like his sister. Tojo noticed a deep sadness in his aunt's eyes, one he had never seen before, and wondered what was eating at her.

"Good morning aunt, Everything alright?" Tojo said, not wanting to come across as nosy or rude, so he kept his questions real vague.

"Good morning to you as well, and I'm fine, thank you" Sarafina said, wondering how he knew something was bothering her. Tojo knew that she wasn't completely alright but he decided it best not to bug her about it.

Sarafina looked over towards the back of the cave and saw that Malka and Chumvi were still sleeping. If left alone, those two could sleep into midday no problem. Sooner or later they were going to have to start waking up early and taking their responsibilities more seriously.

Sarafina didn't know what it was, but for some reason today out of all days felt different. People seemed to look a little sad, almost as if mourning over something. Then it hit Sarafina like a charging elephant. Today was the one year anniversary of Sarabi's passing…

One year ago today, Sarabi gave birth to Simba and passed away shortly after from complications of childbirth. Sarafina felt ill realizing this. The memory of Sarabi being able to hold Simba and show him love and affection for a few short hours before passing into the stars sent chills down her spine. Sarafina knew she had to tell Simba, but feared it might ruin his day.

Sarafina looked towards to corner of the cave that Sarabi gave birth to Simba. It was quiet and dark, much like the atmosphere of the day. One year ago today, in that very corner, one life started… One year ago today, in that very corner, another ended…

Sarafina knew not to pity Sarabi, as she remembered her last words. _'Do not fear nor pity for me Sarafina. My time in my current form has come to an end, yet my time on this earth has barely begun. Watch over my cub. He will need a mother, and you're just the lioness for the job. Take care of my husband, I fear my passing will cause conflict within him… and remember dearest friend… everything happens for a reason… Everything… Happens… For a reason…'._ Then Silence… Those were her last words, drilled into Sarafina skulled played over and over again on loop.

Sarafina didn't know how to say it, but she felt as if Sarabi knew that Mufasa would disown Simba. The way she said 'Everything happens for a reason' Just made no sense. Unfortunately, Sarafina would never get the chance to ask Sarabi that question, at least not in this life.

Sarafina remembered Sarabi telling her to take care of Simba for her, and felt a pain in her chest and tears behind her eyes form, knowing she let her friend down. At any time she could have taken him in and gave him a better life. That was the one thing Sarafina regretted. Not doing something about Simba's situation sooner. Why? She did not know. But what she did know what that she had finally fulfilled her friend's request, many months too late.

 _'Sarabi… If you can hear me… Know I am sorry. Know that I truly am. Know that Mufasa has done so many bad things, but I sense there is still good left in him. I know it sounds crazy but I feel that in time he will notice his mistakes, and make amends. I know you might be mad at Mufasa, but give him a second chance… It sounds crazy… but I have a feeling he can change'_ Sarafina thought, calling out to her friend, hoping she could hear her.

Sarafina exited Pride Rock and went to get Simba up, preparing to tell him the news. It wasn't going to be easy for Simba, but then again nothing ever had been easy for him. Sarabi was right when she said he would grow up to be the strongest of them all. He had pulled through in the past, and he could do it once more today.

From above the clouds, Sarabi had heard her friends call. _'You are forgiven, my friend. And Mufasa is lost, but all lost things can be found. And remember dearest friend… Everything happens for a reason…'_ Sarabi called down to Sarafina. Sarabi knew that Sarafina couldn't hear here... Not yet... but it gave Sarabi hope to know that her friend still cared. Sarabi fixed her gaze upon Simba, and at that moment she had never felt more proud in her existence. Sarabi knew it was time. It had been a long and rough year, but it was finally time.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Sarafina had her eyes locked on the two sleeping figures in the center of Simba's hideout. She had been thinking about how she was going to tell the news to Simba, as he most definitely wouldn't take it lightly, and would feel guilty and responsible, as always. She saw that her daughter was asleep under the tree in his hideout, surprised that only after one night, she had changed so much.

Sarafina walked up to Simba and nudged him, waking both him and Tama up in the process. Simba was slow to wake up, but quickly got up when he saw who it was. The only reason Sarafina ever confronted him like this was to tell him something important.

"Simba… There's something you need to know" Sarafina said, in a voice that held many emotions. Simba nodded at her seriously, before getting up and following her away from his hideout. Sarafina noticed that her daughter and two nieces were following them and turned around to confront him.

"You three need to leave" Sarafina said sternly. Nala, Tama, and Kula sighed, knowing that Sarafinas word was final. The three were in the middle of turning around, when Simba spoke out, causing them to stop.

"It's ok if they stay. Whatever it is you need to tell me, they can hear too" Simba said giving them a smile. Sarafina knew that it would have only been a matter of time before the three curious lionesses saw the way people were acting and started to ask questions. Sarafina took a deep breath in, preparing to tell Simba something that she always feared she would have to.

"Simba… I don't know how to say this or really even how to put this…" Sarafina started, noticing that the four cubs started to get nervous by the way she had said that. "Well… Today, One year ago, your mother passed away" Sarafina said, not trying to be gentle or careful with him. No matter how she said it, it would have the same effect on him overall.

All eyes locked on Simba… no one could have even guessed that this would be the news Sarafina wanted to tell him. Nala watched Simba, closely, and saw that his legs started to buckle slightly. She quickly ran up beside him and caught him before he almost fell to the ground. It was a good thing her mother let her stay, otherwise, Simba would have a face full of dirt right now.

Tama and Kula both stepped up and helped support Simba. They knew this must have been hard for him to take in, but apparently, it hit him hard enough to cause him to temporarily collapse. They watched as he just stood there deep in thought, none of them being able to see what he was thinking about.

"I… I…" Simba said but just didn't have the words. "I need some alone time" Simba managed to say. His mind was being torn in a thousand directions, so the fact that he was able to speak at all was a shocker.

Sarafina nodded, understanding that this would be hard on his mind, knowing that he would need some alone time to think about this.

"Simba No. You have us to help you. Don't deal with this alone" Nala pleaded, looking into his eyes, hoping that he'd return eye contact. Simba wanted to return eye contact, wanted to acknowledge her, but he knew that if he did, he would be unable to refuse her help, and all he wanted to do was be left alone right now.

"Nala, It's Simba's choice on whether he wants to be left alone or not" Sarafina said towards her daughter. "Simba, check in with me later today once you feel better" Sarafina said towards Simba this time, wanting to make sure he would be ok.

Nala sighed and turned around, walking in the direction of Pride Rock with her mother and two friends in tow. Simba stood there for a minutes before walking back to his hideout to think.

Simba started to walk, all the while caught up in his thoughts. He didn't know what to think. One year ago his mother died. She died because of him, and if it weren't for him, she'd still be alive.

Simba openly blamed himself for his mother's death, just like his father. Every time he thought about it, he came to the same conclusion that if it weren't for him... if he was never born... his mother would still be here.

Upon arriving at his hideout, he went straight to the pond and looked down at his reflection. He scolded himself. Partly hating himself for being the reason his mother had died. _'I did this… It's my fault… I'm the murderer…'_ Simba said to himself.

Upon telling this to himself, Simba felt tired. Too tired. He even slept in this mourning, so why was he so tired? Simba started to make his way towards his rock, wanting to go back to sleep to clear his mind of this thoughts, and had barely made it to his rock before passing into a deep sleep.

 _ **(Dreamscape, Simba… Third Person)**_

 **(IMPORTANT!)** **(Alright, so this next part is kinda like not really possible, but what I want you to understand in that in the original Lion King, Mufasa basically did the same thing. If you Don't like this next part, then don't worry, I'm not going to let it take over the entire story, I added this so we could all get to know Sarabi and have the chance to understand who she is in this story. I only ever plan on making a few more scenes like this, and they** **WON'T** **have major impacts on the story. I know a lot of you may think that it's unrealistic and stupid, which I can see why, but you can't really give me crap for doing basically the same thing as in the original 1994 movie... Continue)**

 _Simba woke up in a strange place. It looked like he was inside a cloud… or what he always imagined being inside a cloud would be like. It was sunny and calm, almost… perfect. No, It was perfect. It was peaceful and relaxing, so much so that Simba didn't want to leave._

 _"My Son" A voice called out from behind of him. Simba quickly turned around and faced a strange lion, one he had never seen before._

 _"Name yourself!" Simba said in a stern voice. 'It's just a dream. She isn't real, no need to fear her. She can't harm you' Simba told himself._

 _"You're right, this is just a dream, and you need_ not _fear me, I won't harm you. But I am real" She told Simba, surprising him. "I am Sarabi. The former queen of the pride lands, mate of Mufasa, and your mother" Sarabi said._

 _Simba realized that it was a dream or nightmare, he hadn't figured that out yet, and she could hear his thoughts, after all, she was in his head, but she wasn't real. "You're not my mother! I killed my mother!" Simba said angrily, outraged that this lioness dared call herself his mother._

 _"I died giving birth to you, a natural death, and I would find it hard to believe that a newborn cub could kill a full-grown lioness, but you and your father think that you killed me. I only wonder why?" Sarabi said, already knowing he blamed himself for her death._

 _"Get out of my head!" Simba yelled at her again. Sarabi rolled her eyes, knowing she would have to prove she was his mother._

 _"I'm not inside your head, I'm real. But don't take my word for it, I'll prove it. First, Know that I have forgiven your father, and I don't blame you for my death. I could not be more proud of you my son. Life has been hard and cruel to you, and yet you are so gentle and kind. You are all that a mother could ask for in her son" Sarabi said. Those words hurt Simba. He wanted to believe that she was real, he wanted to know that his mother forgave him and was proud of him, but he was more focused on her proving it._

 _"How can you prove you're my mother, and that you're real?" Simba said calmly, knowing she wasn't a threat and he didn't need to yell at her._

 _"Ask your aunt, Sarafina. Better yet, tell her this… 'Do not fear nor pity for me Sarafina. My time in my current form has come to an end, yet my time on this earth has barely begun. Watch over my cub. He will need a mother, and you're just the lioness for the job. Take care of my husband, I fear my passing will cause conflict within him… and remember dearest friend… everything happens for a reason… Everything… Happens… For a reason…'. Tell her those words and tell her what I look like. Tell her how your father was so excited when he found out I was pregnant with his son. Tell her I am watching over her, always, as I am watching over you. Tell her I can hear her calls every night and that she is not alone. Tell her Nala's first word, 'Simba'. If you don't already know, Her first word was your name. And if that isn't enough to prove I'm your mother than I don't know what is. I'll talk to you tonight. No sooner. No later" Sarafina said._

 _Simba was tempted to believe her. If she was fake, then why was she willing to prove herself wrong by making him ask all those questions and say all those things. "Very well,_ Sarabi _" Simba said. He knew his mother's name and saying it sounded weird._

 _"And one more thing my_ son _" Sarabi said as she walked up to her son. She scratched his front left paw, noticing his right front paw had stitches in it. It didn't hurt Simba, for it was a dream, and watched as his mother took the pinpoint drop of blood from the scratch and smeared it on his paw._

 _"For when you wake_ up _" Sarabi said with a smile. Simba was confused, but quickly saw everything start to go black, and soon found himself falling…_

 _He was falling faster and faster by the second and saw his hideout from far above the cloud. He saw he was falling directly on top of his body, and shouted when he realized that he was going to hit the ground. He saw the ground get closer and closer. Just as he was inches from impact..._

 _ **(Reality)**_

Simba shot up shouting a little. The falling felt so real, and he looked around, exactly where he was when he was about to hit the ground.

Simba quickly looked down at his left paw and saw that it had a scratch and some blood smeared on it, exactly how his 'mother' had done in his dream. Simba thought that maybe he had got it from one of the girls stepping on him, and decided it was not enough information to concluded anything.

He needed to find Sarafina, His… aunt. Sprinting as fast as he could, he bolted towards Pride Rock, running faster than he had ever run before.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Sarafina was sitting Inside of Pride Rock, watching Mheetu and Nala play. Well, Mheetu was playing and Nala was giving little effort, worried about Simba. Sarafina's attention was diverted when she saw Simba taking the turn into the cave of Pride Rock way too fast and slammed into the side of the wall. He quickly got back up and started running towards her, causing both her and Nala to get up.

Nala walked up to Simba, and went to talk, but was cut off. "Hi Nala sorry can't talk right now I love you more than anything be back soon" Simba said in one breathe, following up with the deepest, most passionate, love filled, shortest kiss he had ever given her, before trotting up to her mother. Nala just stood there confused by the way he was acting., it happened so fast that she didn't even have time to respond, let alone kiss him back...

"Auntie I need to talk to you right now It's Important and no and can't wait so let's go!" Simba said in one breathe again, pushing her to get her to move faster. Sarafina was surprised right now. First, he comes running into the cave and slides into the wall, runs past Nala and kisses her, called her auntie, and was pushing her to get her to move faster.

"Bye Nala sorry can't talk right now I love you more than anything be back soon" Simba said, stopping briefly and placing another kiss, exactly the same as the first one on her lips before running out of the cave with her mother, almost as fast as he ran in.

Nala stood there confused. "Love you too…" She said a little confused. He was acting differently this mourning with the nuzzling, and now with him kissing her like that, She didn't know what to think.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Sarafina was running behind Simba, almost as fast as she could. She knew he was going slower than his fastest so she could keep up. Sarafina knew she was stronger than Simba, but he was definitely faster than her.

Upon reaching his hideout, Simba quickly stopped and turned around to face Sarafina. "Auntie I think I met my mother today" Simba said with a smile. Sarafina looked at him and frowned. He probably just missed her so much and dreamt he met her.

"Simba I know you must miss her, but the fact is that -" Sarafina was saying before she was cut off.

"No, I need you to listen. Just listen please, ok?" Simba pleaded. Sarafina just gave him a confused look before nodded, letting him continue.

"Ok, So the lioness I met was a slender lioness, beige fur. Had a cream muzzle, underbelly, paws and eye patches. Had a salmon nose, black tipped ears, black eyebrows, dark eyelids, and orange eyes. She said she wanted me to tell you something. I think it was 'Do not fear nor pity for me Sarafina. My time in my current form has come to an end, yet my time on this earth has barely begun. Watch over my cub. He will need a mother, and you're just the lioness for the job. Take care of my husband, I fear my passing will cause conflict within him… and remember dearest friend… everything happens for a reason… Everything… Happens… For a reason…'. She also said that my father was excited when he found out she was pregnant. Also, she says that she hears your calls every night, and tell want you to know you're not alone. She also said that Nalas first word was 'Simba', my name" Simba said, and was surprised to see Sarafinas reactions.

Sarafina, a full-grown lioness, was tearing up a bit Sarafina didn't know what to say. He had described his mother perfectly. He had recited her last words perfectly. He was right, His father was beyond excited when he found out she was pregnant and Nala's first word was 'Simba'. And she had heard her calls every night. All those things, Simba couldn't have found out, not even by asking around. For she was the only one who knew those. "Simba… I d-don't k-know how to s-say this… B-but that w-was your mother" Sarafina said running up to him and hugging him, more to comfort herself than him.

Simba was even more taken back this. His mother, watching over him, had forgiven him, still loved him... "Kings of the past..." Simba muttered to himself. "I'm supposed to meet her again tonight" Simba said, causing Sarafina to break the hug and look him directly in the eyes, her face only mere inches away from his.

"What?" Sarafina said wanting to make sure she had heard him correctly. Simba was just so tied up in his emotions right now that he didn't know what to say or do. First, he meets his mother, then his aunt tells him that it actually was his mother, now she was looking straight into his eyes, burning a hole in into his soul.

"She said she would see me tonight" Simba said. Sarafina internally started to panic. This was big. Bigger than she could have possibly imagined. Sarafina honestly didn't know what to do either. Her best friend was alive... sorta. She heard her calls, she wasn't alone in this struggle.

"Ok… Ok… Let's just think" Sarafina said trying to calm Simba and herself down. Nothing made sense to her. Sarabi had been with them this entire time. She had been watching over them all this time… so why didn't she try to contact them sooner?

"Ok, Simba… Ok…" Sarafina said, still trying to find the words to describe her. "Simba I don't what is happening. Your mother is still with us! She may not be living among us, but she is watching over us! It's… It's as if she is still alive!" Sarafina said excitedly jumping around.

Simba had always seen Sarafina as serious and wise, so to see her jumping around with glee just didn't seem right. "So what do we do..?" Simba asked unsure of what was going on. Nothing made sense. nothing ever had. And now just like before, he was left with questions he needed answers to.

"Well, you're meeting her again tonight. So ask her questions. Get to know her. This is great! I mean if you have a way to talk to her you can ask her anything! This is… This… This is unbelievable!" Sarafina said with a smile. For the first time in a long time, Sarafina had more happiness than she knew what to do with.

"I guess… But I don't know the first thing about her. I get she's my mom… but she's still a stranger a to me…" Simba said. He was conflicted right now. He was happy that his mother was still with him, and he could finally talk to her, but it just didn't seem right, and he didn't know why.

"Simba, There is nothing I can say or do to help you prepare for this. This will be something that you're going to have to do on your own. Your mother is the nicest and kindest person I know, and in time you'll see that" Sarafina said trying to reassure him.

"Thanks, But it's only midday, She said she would see me tonight, no sooner no later. So what should I… We… do until then?" Simba asked. He still had the rest of the day left and he had a feeling it would go by slow due to the fact that tonight was the only thing on his mind.

"Take the rest of the day to think. I can tell the others that you'll be busy today" Sarafina said. Simba ran up and hugged her. He might have his real mother now, but he would still always see Sarafina as a mother.

"Thanks. I don't know what I'd do without you" Simba said, before breaking the hug. "I'm going to take a run… I need to think" Simba said before running through the tall grass. Sarafina smiled. For the first time in… ever… she had sensed that a part of Simba that once died, had come back to life. She looked up to the clouds. _'Thank you'_ , Sarafina muttered with a smile, this time knowing her friend could hear her.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was currently running through the pride lands, not having any destination in mind, just running as he always did when working out. Pushing himself harder and harder every minute. He didn't know how long he had been running, but he knew he had most likely stayed out too long when he heard his friends calling his name.

He looked at the sun. Maybe an hour before dusk. Simba was surprised to see that he had been running nonstop for almost four hours now. Simba came to a stop and caught his breath. He wasn't done thinking and didn't really have the time for his friends to sidetrack him. They were great friends and all but right now he was still thinking and running out of daylight.

After walking for a few minutes, lowering his heart rate and catching his breath, Simba started back up with a mild trot. He could feel that he was almost completely spent. He heard the voice of Tojo start to get closer and closer. He wanted to run faster, but he didn't have the energy. Simba started to think that what he was doing was wrong. He was clearly trying to avoid them but wasn't trying to be rude about it. He was contemplating whether it was right or wrong to avoid them at a time like this.

"Simba!" Tojo yelled as he finally caught sight of him. Tojo watched as Simba continued trotting on, not even acknowledging him. Tojo knew that he wasn't running away from him, but there was no way he didn't hear him. "Found him" Tojo called out to everyone.

The others quickly came running upon hearing Tojo's call. They had spent that past two hours trying to find him, wanting to make sure that he was ok. The last time anyone saw him was in the cave, almost four hours ago. "Hey wait up!" Tojo called as he increased his speed, catching up to Simba.

He noticed that Simba was drenched in sweat, and wasn't breathing right. He was almost wheezing in a way. "Simba what's wrong?" Tojo called, looking behind him to see that Malka, Chumvi, Nala, Tama, and Kula were running to catch up.

"Nothing-" Simba said panting hard. "Can't stop-" He added needing to breathe again. "Thinking" He finished. Simba knew that what he was doing probably wasn't the best thing for his health, but at the same time he needed to think, and running was how he thought about topics that bugged him.

"Simba stop!" Nala called out, trying to control her boyfriend. She saw what he looked like. His energy was spent, he was clearly dehydrated, and his breathing was labored.

Refusing to back down, Simba saw his vision start to blur. He let out a roar, partly of pain and mostly of frustration, startling everyone behind him. His roar was rather developed and meaning for a cub, far more developed than the other lions his age.

"Simba we know what day it is and we just want to help you!" Kula cried out. Upon hearing this Simba planted his paws into the ground, quickly stopping himself and turning around. Everyone else had to do the same to prevent themselves from blowing right past him or running into him.

"That… has… nothing… to do with this" Simba said breathing hard. He felt like collapsing and stumbled to stand back up. No one could tell whether he was angry, or just breathing heavily. The heavy panting made it sound like he was enraged, but his body language told a different story.

"Then why are you acting like this?!" Nala said getting angry. All she wanted to do was help him, yet all he was doing was running away and not answering back. Everyone else was more concerned than angry, but a little irritated that he was acting this way.

"I'm… Thinking-" He said, ending it with an exhausted sigh. "Can't stop… running" Simba said turning around, breaking back into a trot. His trot was short lived as Nala bolted towards him the second she saw him make a run for it and pounced on him, pinning him on his back.

"Stop, Now!" Nala shouted towards his face, startling everyone a little. Nala was for the most part very calm and gentle, concerned with others feelings. So to see her like this was something no one had experienced before. "I don't care what you think you doing. You're only hurting yourself doing what you're doing. So seeing as asking didn't work, I'm now forcing you. Tell us what's wrong!" Nala said, not shouting as loud this time.

Simba tried to push her off due to the fact that she was partly crushing him but he was too tired. Nala felt his effort and pushed down harder, glaring into his face. "Stop! I'm serious Simba!" Nala shouted, making sure he knew. Now she was restricting his ability to breath.

"Get off… Can't… breath..." Simba wheezed out. Nala then realized that she was pushing down on his diaphragm with all her force, and quickly got off. The second she did, the only sound that could be heard was his loud breathing and coughing.

"Sorry. We just want to help you" Nala said looking down at him, making sure she didn't hurt him.

"I can see that" He said laughing a little. The others only stiffened their glares, not finding his sense of humor funny right now. "Alright Alright" Simba said trying to lighten the mood. "What do you need?" He asked, completely forgetting why they were here.

"Whaa... But…" Nala started but ended with an angry sigh. "We here to help you!" Nala yelled at him. She didn't understand how he didn't think this was serious, or how he could think this was a time for a joke.

"Help me with what?" Simba asked. He knows he didn't ask for it, and every time he wanted to be alone they all came running to him, thinking that he would be fine because they were now there. If they wanted to help, they could help by being alone.

"With… Oh my god, what is your problem Simba!" Nala said, getting angrier by the second. Everyone else just backed off, leaving Simba on his own. Sure, they were concerned for him and all, but they knew not to get between Him and Nala when she was angry.

"I don't know! What is yours?!" Simba said getting defensive. "If you want to help, then you can help by leaving me alone" Simba said. He didn't like turning his friends away. But with the pressure from the trials and his mothers he was just unstable and wanted to be left alone.

"Fine! But when you come back don't expect an apology or sympathy from us!" Nala screamed back at him. She was so mad that she honestly felt like pouncing on him to no end, but that wouldn't solve anything.

"Yea, well I would never have given you one anyway!" Simba said landing the final strike. It was clear to everyone that he was in no mood for company, and all felt ready to leave.

"Let's go guys" Nala said with a huff, turning around with the others and walking away. Simba watched their retreating figures, not understanding why they cared so much. Sure they were his friends and cared because of that, but when he asked for some alone time, he at least expected them to actually leave him alone.

Simba turned around and headed for a nearby stream. He was too tired right now to trot and just need to cool off… figuratively and literally.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

The group had been walking back towards Pride Rock, with Nala ranting on and on about how Simba's behavior was unacceptable and other related stuff. Tama had successfully been able to slip out. She knew Simba didn't want anything to do with him right now, but her bond with him was different than everyone else's, maybe she could help him.

She spotted him cooling off in a stream near where he last was, standing in the water with just his head sticking out. She saw how tired and spent he was, and knew he would most likely come here to cool off. "Simba?" She said calmly, wanting to make it known that she wasn't trying to be demanding like everyone else.

"I already told you. I want to be left alone" He said calmly as well, with the right amount of sternness in his voice. No need to yell at her is she wasn't yelling at him.

"I know. I just wanted to talk more about this mourning…" Tama said. She wanted to talk about both this mourning and the events that had just recently happened, but knew that she would have to calm him down first.

"Oh…" Simba said, giving his full attention. Taking one last drank, he walked out of the water, feeling the effects of gravity take hold once more. His muscle were burning, and the weightless property of water gave relief to his exhausted muscles.

When Simba exited the stream, Tama didn't know what to say. He was already shredded as is. You could see all the muscles, tendons, and veins in his body at any time. He wasn't skinny either, strong and fit for his age. Now after he was running, he looks even better, the muscles are slightly swollen and the veins bulge more. Now make his coat wet which causes it to fall on top of his muscles, bringing his definition out even more, which didn't seem possible, made him look like a god.

Simba was confused as to why she wasn't saying anything and looked down. He sighed, he knew that his body drew a lot of attention, but he didn't really like that. He saw the other male cubs try to be like him, and try to gain the attention of the females, yet fantasy is always better than reality.

"Yes?" Simba said, bring Tama back to earth.

"Hmm… Oh, yea… About this mourning…" Tama said not know where to start. At the moment, what she said seemed so perfect, but after thinking about it all day, she didn't know what to think about it really. What is her trust for him, or was it fear of losing him that spoke for her this mourning.

"This mourning I said that… I… I… well that I…" Tama said feeling a little embarrassed. It seemed a little weird to say 'I love you' to two guys, especially if either one isn't related to you.

"You loved me?" Simba finished for her, not understand why it was so hard to repeat it. He might know how friendships work, but love... ehhh… but love… can never truly be understood.

"Yea… I said that… I loved you. And I do. Only as friends those. I'm in a relationship with Malka, and you're in a relationship with Nala, and I completely respect both of our decisions and want to make it clear that there isn't anything inappropriate going on between us and that-" Tama was saying, wanting to reassure herself, more than Simba, that what she said was ok, before Simba chimed in.

"Ok ok ok! I get it" Simba said with a small chuckle. "You love me as a brother, not a mate" Simba finished, making it know he got the point. Tama nervously smiled, kinda embarrassed she had to go the extra mile for no reason. "So what else?" Simba asked, being able to tell she had more on her mind. Simba was the only cub who could read eyes. Meaning he could look into someone's eyes and tell what they were thinking about, or how they were feeling.

"Well. Was what I said ok? I mean like was it the right thing to say, or did I cross a line somewhere along the way. I just want to make sure that neither Malka or Nala are upset by this" Tama said. Now Simba Understood. She was just scared she would end up doing something to hurt their relationships.

"Do you love your mother?" Simba asked, already knowing the answers. Tama didn't understand where he was going with this but answered him nonetheless.

"Of course" Tama replied. The bond between a mother and her cub was unbreakable, and it went both ways.

"And do you love her as a family member… or like…" Simba said, hoping she would get the idea. The urge to vomit smacked the back of Tama's throat probably harder than the king could have smacked her himself.

"Ewww! That's disgusting… No, That's beyond disgusting. She is family. That's just… I can't even describe how messed up that is! Why would you ever ask a question like that?" Tama asked revolted at even the image of that.

"Because It proves a point that two people can love each other without it being romantic" Simba said with a blank face. Now Tama understood. Her relationship with him was almost like her relationship with her mother. Just because you felt love towards someone doesn't mean it needs to be romantic.

"Oh…" Tama said, wondering why she didn't think of it like that before. It was so simple, and it bugged her that she had to come all this way and have a weird conversation with Simba just to see that. "But still, That's disgusting" Tama said, unamused that she got that image in her head.

Simba rolled over with laughter upon hearing this. It wasn't every day you heard Tama complain, let alone pout. "Ahhh, sweet dreams tonight" Simba said, then causing an explosion to go off in his mind. He had completely forgotten why he was out here in the first place and got back up.

Simba quickly looked up to see that it was an hour before sunset. "Should I go back and apologize to the others?" Simba asked. He still had an hour to kill and had gathered as much as his thoughts as he'd be able to.

"No crap idiot" Tama said pushing him down. "We were concerned for you and you pushed us away" Tama said a little irritated, glad he had brought it up himself and not here.

"Hey! Hey! I just needed to think" Simba said.

"Oh just wait until Nala gets through with you" Tama said with a smirk. Simba hadn't even thought about what Nala was going to do to him. He groaned knowing she would probably make him do something dumb or just yell at him for an hour.

"Ugh… great" Simba said almost sounding depressed. Tama facial expression went from a smirk to a look of pure concern. She hadn't heard that voice in a while. It brought back old memories of when she used to laugh at him for tripping and other stuff related to that.

"What's wrong?" Tama asked, hoping this time he would accept her help. Simba sighed and shook his head. He didn't mind telling her, it just the thought brought unease to his mind,

"I don't like fighting with her. I fear I'll end up upsetting her and she'll leave me" Simba said. Tama could actually relate to this. During their time in that godforsaken cave during the storm, she asked him for relationship advice for the same reason. She didn't want to upset Malka and have him leave.

"A wise person once gave me advice in a situation like this once" Tama started, getting Simba's full attention. "To sum up what he said, Tell her you love her and fear to lose her. Once she realizes that you need her as much as she needs you the arguing should stop and all should return to normal" Tama said with a smirk. Simba rolled his eyes, remembering that he told her that exact thing.

"Yea Ha-ha, real funny" Simba said giving her a smile.

"Don't worry, I can back you up as best as I can" Tama said.

"Why? Nala will only get angry at you for conspiring with the enemy" Simba said trying to retain a chuckle. Tama laughed and pushed him over. Nala was lucky to have a guy like him, and even she knew that. He could take any topic and shed some light upon it, a thing few people can do nowadays.

"Race you to Pride Rock!" Tama said jumping into a playful stance. She had completely forgotten that Simba had spent the past four hours running nonstop around the pride lands and had no energy to be running.

"I think I've done my fair share of running for the day" Simba said rubbing his arm. Tama then realized that he was still exhausted, and made a note to make sure he ate tonight.

"Well, in that case, I'll walk with you. I have a feeling you'll need all the backup you can get" She said with a smile. Simba smiled back and nodded. He didn't know what Tama saw in him, but he was glad she saw it. He was by far the cub she trusted the most, and she was always smiling towards him. When it came to the other cubs she had a stoic face that let them know who was boss, yet with him, it seemed as if she didn't care what he thought. "I hope you're wrong" Simba added.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

The walk back to Pride Rock was a difficult one. Not only because Simba was sore, but because all he could think about was an angry lioness. He knew that Nala was going to mad at him, but that was only part of the problem. The other part was that he didn't like arguing, and was going to try to invade an argument with her at all cost.

The first thing they did upon arriving was making sure Simba ate something. Tama forced Simba to have at least a bite of buffalo. She saw how tired he looked and made sure that he wouldn't try to skip a meal. Since the hunting party took down a buffalo today, there was plenty to go around and no excuse for him to miss a meal.

Upon arriving at the entrance, he looked over at Nala to still she was glaring at him. Upon seeing her glare he confirmed that she most likely had a few words to say to him. He sighed and decided to not to make it seem like he was avoiding her, and went up to her.

Simba watched as she turned her head, making it clear that she didn't want to talk to him, or even look at him. He tried to nuzzle the back of her neck, wanting to show that he was sorry, but as soon as he made contact with her she shot up and nipped at him.

Simba was surprised to see her do this. Isn't wasn't like she had bitten him, it was only a small little warning nip that barely hurt, yet she had never lashed out at anyone like that before. Nala refused to make eye contact and walked over to the back of the cave and lied down.

Her plan rather immature, yet she was just angry and wasn't think clearly. She was going to try and make Simba understand how she felt, by doing the exact same thing he did, Ignore him. She was spying on him for the corner of her eye, watching him just look at the ground.

She didn't enjoy watching him like this, but she was just so fed up with him at times and wanted him to experience what she was. She watched as he walked over to a corner of the cave and lied down. He quickly raised his head back up, looking as if he was restless and uncomfortable.

Her initial instinct was to go over to him and make sure he was ok, but clearly, he didn't want her help. Nala was still young and didn't think things through that well, and thought that by doing this she was teaching him a lesson, yet in reality, all she was doing was causing him to beat himself up.

Nala looked over towards her friends and saw that they all didn't seem to mind him being here and didn't seem to be mad at him for his actions, yet they didn't know him like she did. Nala watched as Tama walked up to him and bent down, whispering something that she couldn't make out.

Nala observed them talking about something, yet pretended like she didn't care. In reality, she did care, but she tried to convince herself that she was mad at him, yet she wasn't. She was drawn out of her mental conflict when Simba slowly got back up and started to make his way out of Pride Rock. Instead of going to the left and descending for Pride Rock, and walked all the way out to the tip and sat down, head hung low, shoulders slumped. The only other time she had ever seen Simba sit like this was when he looked down at his reflection in his pool at his Hideout, and the only reason he did that was when he was under a lot of stress or was feeling sad.

Enough was enough for Nala. She was tired of seeing him suffer like this and got up to go over to him. Her plan did the exact opposite of what she had expected. Instead of making him feel guilty, it made her feel guilty, and at the end of the day, it was her love for him that made her get up.

Simba heard that Nala was coming up behind, or just assumed that it was her seeing as she would be the only person to come up to him right now. He saw her out of the corner of his eye, looking at him contemplating whether or not she should try and talk to him.

"I know you don't want to hear this, But I'm sorry" Simba said. If she was too angry to even acknowledge him, then she was probably too angry to want an apology from him. Simba was surprised when he felt her lean into him and start nuzzling him, not expecting her to have calmed down so fast.

"I was just scared" Nala said nuzzling into his chest, finding it comfortable, safe, and warm as always. "I was scared that you had changed. That maybe something had finally broken your spirit" Nala said before a few tears had escaped that she had been trying to hold back.

"I understand. Every day I feel like giving up, but I do it for you, and I do it for the few people that love me" Simba said wrapping his arm around her. "I just needed to think. Something big has happened, and I needed some time to think about. I can't say what it is yet, but hopefully, soon I can tell you. I just wanted to be left alone, and I took that as a reason to push you away" Simba said, wanting to make sure that she knew why he acted the way he did.

"I'm also sorry. I was angry and acting immature. Instead of talking to you I ignored you, wanting to see you in pain. I'm a terrible person" Nala muttered, feeling ashamed that she had tried to do such a thing to him. Simba wasn't angry at her, mostly because she was just upset. He understood that people's ability to handle situations is greatly impacted by what mood they're in.

"It's ok" Simba said, resting his head on top of hers. Their moment was short lived as another lion started to call out for one of them.

"Nala! Nala! Mom says you have to play with me" Mheetu said, breaking them apart. Mheetu was Nala's younger brother, younger by about seven months. Nala was enjoying their moment a lot. It wasn't often they got to sit like that, resting in his chest with his head on top of hers, and was now irritated once more that her little brother had to ruin it.

"Later, I'm a little busy. Play with Tojo or Kula" Nala said pushing him away gently, returning back to Simba. Simba looked down at Mheetu, not having recognized him before. He was small, young, and still had much to learn, but so did Simba. Simba realized that he was once that small and that young, and watched as the little cub's face went from hopeful to rather annoyed.

"Fine! Well, let's see what mommy has to say!" He pouted, threatening Nala now.

"Mheetu, please. I just want to spend some time with my friend" Nala said looking at him. In the past few days, her younger brother was really starting to bug her. Before it was like he almost didn't exist, now he was coming to her every ten seconds.

"But he's a loser. A reject. A mistake. You said it yourself. All he ever does is mess up, and the only thing he is good for is laughing at" Mheetu said, not knowing that in the past few months Simba had become a friend to all of them. Mheetu was only four months old, seven months younger than Malka, Chumvi, Tojo, Tama, and Kula. And was eight months younger than Simba. During his early cub days, he always saw his big sister, his idol, making fun of Simba, and considered him a loser, like everyone else. Or so he thought.

Nala quickly lashed out, For the second time today, and smacked Mheetu across the face as hard as she could. He let out a cub style squeak of pain, upon being smacked and falling to the ground. He immediately started to cry, and let out little cub roars, calling for help from anyone, but Nala wasn't done yet. Just as quickly as before, she jumped on top of him and pinned him to the ground. "You dare say that to him? If you weren't so young and weak I'd be all over you like my prey, pounding your face with my paw. Simba is loyal, respectful, smart, strong, creative, caring, and unlike you he's dependent. If I so much as ever hear you say that again I'll make you wish mother never gave birth to you!" Nala snarled into his face.

Nala didn't understand how strong she had gotten as of recently, and how young Mheetu was. Nala had smacked the shit out of Mheetu, sending him flying across the floor, and he was only a young cub. She was honestly lucky that she didn't serious end up hurting him by doing what she did. On top of all that she pinned him to the ground and threatened to beat him.

Mheetu was crying, truly terrified of his big sister. He struggled to get out of her grasp, but she was too strong, he was beaten. He continued to cry, fearing for his safety. He started to let out endless cub style cries of pain. Roars that were meant for his mother, or for anyone to come and save him. He had never seen Nala act like this towards him. She was always so gentle and kind towards him, so to have her doing this to him made him honestly think she was going to hurt him badly, or worse… kill him.

Nala's hold on him only lasted second, as she felt something impact the side of her, almost breaking her ribs. The next thing she knew, her mother was on top of her, pushing her into the ground. Sarafina heard her sons roars of pain and had come running to see what was the matter. She saw that Nala had done a pretty good job at messing him up and she went into full mother mode.

Mheetu quickly got up and ran into Simba's chest, balling his eyes out. He did just insult him a few seconds ago, but he was so scared that he just needed comforting and for someone to hold him, so he ran to the closest person to him. Simba wrapped the young cub in a hug, feeling bad. His cries of pain sent chills down Simba's spine. That noise... just… it only meant one thing. It was the sound of a cub being hurt by another lion. The sound of a little defenseless cub being held down and tortured by something much larger than itself. Whatever that sound was, triggered some instinct of Simba's, causing him to comfort the little guy without even thinking about.

"If you so much as ever lay a paw on him like that again, I swear it will be the last thing you ever do" Sarafina said with a low, deep, snarl. Unlike Nala's snarl, Sarafina's was much more developed, much lower and more threatening. Nala knew what she meant by that, but didn't know if she was serious or not. Would her own mother… Kill her.

"Auntie, please. She was defending me. While her methods were unorthodox, she's going through a lot right now" Simba said, willing to take the beating for both Nala and Mheetu.

Sarafina heard this and pondered. She knew what he meant by going through a lot, but just because you've had a bad day doesn't mean you inflict physical harm upon others. "So I'm to believe that gives her reason to hurt someone?" Sarafina replied, enraged that her daughter attacker her own brother like that.

"No" Simba said, looking down at the young cub in his arms, feeling him shaking still from the traumatic experience. He didn't know how to offer comfort to anyone. He never had a mother, so everytime he got hurt or scared, he just had to suck it up and keep on moving. So he was relieved to see that Kula had come outside after hearing all the commotion, and offered to take care of Mheetu for the time being.

Sarafina got off of Nala and went to check on her youngest. She was full of fear right now. There were cries of pain, and then there were cries of utter agony. Sarafina had never heard such pain filled cries before, especially from a cub. Kula gave her cousin over to her aunt, not wanting to be a target of the protective mother in a time like this.

Sarafina looked at Mheetu and saw that the left side of his face, the side he got smacked on, was red, but wasn't bleeding or torn. She felt around his neck and was relieved that the blow to his head didn't whiplash his neck. The blow he had received could have been fatal if Nala had hit him in the right spot. Lucky all of her energy was concentrated in his face, which meant his face would hurt more, but he didn't sustain neck damage. Relief was soon turned back into anger, as she could finally talk to Nala knowing her son would be ok. Sarafina gave her son back so Kula, trying to get him to stop crying, yet he didn't. Sarafina watched as Kula wrapped the young cub back up and started to say soothing things to him, slowly but surely calming him down. One day she would make a great mother, but for now, she would just be a cub sitter.

"What were you thinking!" Sarafina exclaimed angrily at Nala as she approached the older cub, who was now of age to be considered an adolescent.

"I got angry. I'm so sorry" Nala said, fearing what her mother had in store for her.

"Nala you could have seriously injured your brother, or worse… killed him. You are much bigger and much stronger than he his. What is considered mild for you, is rough for him. What is considered rough for you, is fatal for him!" Sarafina said, opening Nala's eyes on the situation.

"I… I didn't mean to…" Nala said feeling tears build up. She broke eye contact with her mother and looked away from everyone else. She didn't want them to see her cry. She wanted to remain strong and independent, just like her mother, but no matter how hard she tried the tears started to slowly fall one by one. Sarafina was still angry at Nala but didn't have the heart to watch her daughter silently cry to herself.

"Nala, I'm not trying to scare you, but the reality is that you are almost a one year old like Simba now. You are getting stronger every day and need to learn to control your newfound strength. Just because you're strong doesn't mean you need to use all your strength. Take Simba for example. He is strong and has the ability to overpower any one of you, but yet he is gentle and careful when in a situation like this. Now you need to apologize to your brother and take what I said seriously. There is a first time for everything and accidents happen, but I won't let you go without punishment next time" Sarafina said. "I'm sorry for yelling at you" Sarafina added, showing Nala that just because you're mad doesn't give you the right to hurt, let alone yell at other people.

After hearing what her mother said, Nala walked over towards her cousin and brother. Kula gave her a little smile before opening her arms and letting Nala take her brother. Nala embarrassed Mheetu into a hug, but at first, he struggled to escape, vocalizing some unhappy cub noises in the process. He had stopped crying just a minute ago, but the fear of being hurt again was most certainly still there. Nala loosened the hug, not wanting Mheetu to feel scared again. To her surprise, he stopped resisting once she eased up, and hugged her back. Turns out all he needed was a little reassurance that she wasn't going to hurt him again.

Nala broke the hug after a few seconds and looked around. She saw everyone was looking at them and cleared her throat. Upon hearing her clear her throat, they got the message that she wanted a moment in private to talk to her brother, and walked back inside Pride Rock. Sarafina watched the two from inside the cave, still worked up and wanting to make sure that absolutely nothing went wrong.

Nala sat down, then sat her brother down in front of her. She ran her paw over his cheek, which was still red and felt more tears of guilt build up. He was just a little cub that didn't know any better, and she traumatized him because of that.

"I'm so sorry" Nala said letting her tears fall, also sobbing a little. She quickly wrapped him back into a hug before continuing her apology. "I know that I haven't spent that much time with you in that past, and it seems like we fight a lot. But know that I love you and truly do care for you. I get that we annoy each other as siblings. It's just our nature" Nala said, stopping to chuckle a little. Mheetu chuckled a little knowing that was she said was true. They did annoy each other for fun half the time and did things so get the other in trouble. "I don't know why I didn't tell you, but Simba is our friend now. We bullied him as a young cub, which was wrong, but he's our friend now. He isn't anything like what we used to say, and you really need to meet him. And if you're still up for it, we can play together if you want" Nala said breaking the hug.

Mheetu was listening to the apology and was glad to hear that she cared. Being siblings meant they fought a lot, and it seemed like they hated each other at times. Mheetu looked up towards his big sister as a role model. Mheetu yawned, wanting to play that game, but all that commotion had made him tired. Nala looked up and realized that it was almost dark outside.

"How about this. Let's get some sleep tonight, and tomorrow we can play all mourning" Nala said with an excited tone, hoping to get him excited about it as well. "Mheetu?" Nala called out, not hearing him respond. She broke the hug and looked down to see that he had fallen asleep on her. She smiled and shook her head, forgetting that young cubs had the ability to fall asleep in just about any position. One minute they're fearing for their lives, and the next their enjoying a blissful sleep.

Nala picked him up by the scruff with some difficulty and walked back into the cave. Sarafina saw her daughter do this and went to her normal spot in the cave, to make it look like she wasn't spying on them. She watched as Nala carried her sleeping brother by the scruff and dropped him gently into her lap. Sarafina licked around his face, cleaning him up after crying, and looked up to see that Nala had a tear-stained face as well. She heard their conversation but hadn't heard Nala cry.

Sarafina gave Nala a reassuring nuzzle, before Nala laid down next to her. For the first time in over a month, Sarafina would get the pleasure of sleeping with both her little lions, something she didn't get to do that often. The only difference was that one was not so little anymore.

"Looks like you didn't need any backup after all" Tama said walking up beside Simba, giving him a light nuzzle. She saw that he had a smile on upon seeing that all ended well between Nala and her family.

"Not this time" Simba said giving her a slight smile. "Well I'm turning in for the night" Simba said as he started to walk to the far corner of Pride Rock. Tama saw that he was heading to an isolated corner where he planned on sleeping all by himself.

"You alright? We got plenty of space over here if you want to stay with us" Tama said, referring to the pile of their friends who were all already asleep.

"No, But thanks. I plan on getting up early tomorrow" Simba lied. The real reason he didn't want to was that he was supposed to meet his mom tonight. He was still confused as to what happened. He wasn't sure if he was going crazy and just dreamt she was real, but then again Sarafina said it was real. Tama nodded, understanding he didn't want to wake anyone up when he 'got up early in the mourning', and turned around and got on top of the cub pile.

Simba walked over to a far corner and lied down. He closed and eyes and waited a second before falling asleep. _'Here we go… Here we go… Steady breaths…'_ Simba thought to himself. Just like the first time, he started to feel a little tired, then fairly tired, then all of a sudden extremely tired before falling asleep in under ten seconds.

 ** _(Dreamscape, Simba… Third Person)_**

 _Simba woke up in the same place he did the first time he came to this place. It looked weird. It was like he was walking on clouds, which shouldn't have been able to support him. He looked around for any sign of his mother but didn't see her. This was the exact same spot as last time. Simba started to feel disappointment creep into his chest, as he realized he must have gone crazy after all._

 _"Don't worry, I'm here" Sarabi called out from behind him. Of course, she had to appear behind him, even though he had already spun around a few times, she just had to appear behind him, because why not. Simba turned around and saw the exact same lioness as he originally did. "So, what did your aunt say?" Sarabi asked, already knowing the answer._

 _"She said you were real..." Simba said, looking at his mother. Never did he think he would get to meet her. She was dead, and once someone was dead, well, no one really knows what, but what they did know was that they would never be coming back._

 _"Told_ you _" Sarabi said with a smirk. "Now I know you must be concerned and -" Sarabi was saying before her son bolted towards her and hugged her. She was surprised that he trusted her. Most people would just assume they have gone crazy and ignore her, but not her son. Sarabi smiled and hugged her son back._

 _"I've always wanted to do this" Simba said. It was true. Simba had always wanted to be able to give his mother a hug, and now he had. "Thank_ you _" Simba said. He knew now that this was the real deal, this was his mom._

 _"I_ know _" Sarabi said. She reluctantly broke the hug, for she needed to address her son. "I've been watching you for a long time, and I couldn't be more proud of_ you _" Sarabi said, wanting to make it clear that She was. She could hear Simba's thoughts and read his mind. He was always doubting himself on whether his mother would be proud of him or not. Whether she loved him or not, and he deserved to know._

 _"How do you know that I-" Simba started, but then realized that she was a part of him. She essentially heard his_ thoughts, _and read his mind. "Thank_ you _" Simba said with a smile._

 _"I have a_ question _" Simba asked. Sarabi put on a smile, letting her son know he could continue. "When I was born… what went wrong?" Simba asked. He knew she died in childbirth, but beyond that, it was a mystery._

 _"Postpartum hemorrhaging" Sarabi said. She saw her son give her a blank stare and chuckled a little. "It's when the mother starts to bleed after giving birth. It's internally bleeding" She said. "Nothing could have been done. It just happens and is part of the circle of life" Sarabi finished._

 _"Was it... painful?" Simba asked, fearing that he may have caused his mother to suffer._

 _"No. The bleeding didn't hurt, but my heart did. I remember holding you in my lap, crying, as I knew you would have to grow up without me. I wanted to be there when you grew up so badly. You were so small and fragile. Your eyes were still closed, and I never got the chance to see your eyes myself. I felt like I let you down. My last few hours in life where me just holding you. A few hours later… I was dead. The next thing I knew was waking up here. I looked down and saw Pride Rock. I looked inside to see that Sarafina was holding you, mourning over my death. Mufasa… was broken. He had lost the one thing he loved the most in life, and the only reason was_ because of _you. Every minute, of every hour, of every day, of every month, for the past year I have been watching you… Happy birthday" Sarabi said with a smile. While her end may not have been the happiest, at least she had a way to watch over her son._

 _"My… Birthday?" Simba asked, not knowing what a birthday was._

 _"Yes. Today you are exactly one year old. While everyone mourns my death today, I celebrate your birthday" Sarabi said nuzzling her son._

 _"You've been up here all this time… Why didn't you contact me earlier? Why didn't you force dad into taking me back?" Simba asked. She clearly had the power to speak with the living, so why did she wait so long to use it?_

 _"Because of the circle of life. The elders said that I must wait until you were one year old before I could contact you. A test to show that you could survive on your own without my help. It killed me to watch you suffer alone for so many months. I can have no effect on the life below. Using this gift to contact anyone for any other reason than small talk is strictly forbidden. It would break the circle of life, the one thing all animals must live up to" Sarabi said._

 _Simba hadn't thought of it that way. Since she was no longer among the living, she couldn't have an effect on them. "But how come you can talk to me. Talking to me will surely have an effect on the life below" Simba said, realizing that she was having an effect on him._

 _"Because I am not giving you the answers to life. Take the trials for example. I can't help you with them, that is something you must do on your own. What I can help you with is give you hope and more reasons to become the king I always knew you would become" Sarabi said. Simba concluded that she was here to help him emotionally, and help him in his troubled times._

 _"I see… Mom… I don't want to leave…" Simba said sounding sad. "But I know I have to. Nala and the others need me. They are counting on me to be their king one day… it's just… It won't be the same without you…" Simba said looking down. Sarabi knew his pain. She knew that he wanted to stay, but he couldn't. And she knew what it felt like having to be without him, just as he had to go without her._

 _"Simba… If you are ever feeling down, just want to talk, or ever need my help, just call. I will always be with you" Sarabi said with a smile. Simba was a little confused as to what she meant, but she started to speak before he did again. "Just call to me. I will always be with you" Sarabi said._

 _"Mom… How is this possible. I mean… You're dead… How are you talking to me?" Simba asked. Once a person was dead, they were dead. No changing that. So how come she was dead, yet still alive in a way._

 _"We never truly die Simba. At some point, everything will die. Nothing can live forever. When we die, our souls leave our body and travel here. When a king dies, he too travels here, yet he also becomes a star in the sky. A mark of a great leader. The great kings of the past reside here, watching over the pride lands, guarding the circle of life ever after death" Sarabi said. She looked down at her son and saw that he had more questions, but she couldn't say any more on this topic. He would have to find out later in life. "I'm sorry Simba, but that is all I can say" She finished._

 _"Is it boring up here?" Simba asked looking around. It sure was beautiful, but there wasn't really much to do. The one thing almost everyone feared was death being eternal boredom, with absolutely nothing to do._

 _Sarabi chucked a little. "Of course not. The past members of our pride are up here. My mother, my grandmother, all the way to my great great great grandmother reside here. While we don't play games and mess around all day as you and your friends do, we have our own ways to past the time. You'll see one day as well" Sarabi said. Sarabi was loving every second of this. She had always dreamt about having a cub when she was an adolescent and answering all its questions, and now she finally was._

 _"Mom…" Simba asked once again. "You said that you could only ever talk to me… right. Or that you could only have a minimal effect on the world below right?" Simba asked. Sarabi nodded, wondering where this was going. She could just read his thoughts, but those who abuse power... lose it…_

 _"Could you ever talk to Auntie? She really misses you. I think that it would help her greatly" Simba said. Sarabi thought about it for a second. She wasn't allowed to interfere with the circle of life, but visiting an old friend wasn't against the rules._

 _"Visit her about…" Sarabi asked, wanting to make sure it was ok before she came to a conclusion._

 _"Just say hi. You don't need to answers any questions, but I feel like a visit could really help her. She misses you, a lot" Simba said. Sarabi smiled a little. Simba was a very selfless person. Even in a time like this, he was thinking about how he could improve the lives of others around him._

 _"I don't see why not. But only in dreams. My ability to talk to people during the day is limited only to you. Only the great kings have the ability to talk to anyone, anywhere, at any time. This gift is something that I'm fortunate to have in the first place" Sarabi said. She saw her son's face light up with glee._

 _"Thanks_ mom _!" Simba said hugging her. He finally, Finally, knew what it felt like to have a mother, and part of him had just been revived. His thoughts were interrupted however when Sarabi spoke up again._

 _"Simba…_ Unfortunately _our time here is up. I can only keep you here for so long" Sarabi said giving her son a sad smile._

 _"Don't worry, If I ever need you, or just want to talk, I know how to find_ you _" Simba said. "Can I ask one last thing of you?" Simba pleaded. Sarabi gave her son a nod, half expecting it to be a question._

 _"Could you… Well… Could you scratch my left paw, and leave a distinct scar?" Simba asked, knowing that his question would be weird. "I know it sounds weird… But it will be there for me at all times. Not that you won't… But it will be a reminder. A reminder of the good and the bad. And a reminder of tonight" Simba said, hoping she would say yes._

 _Sarabi didn't understand why he wanted her to give him a scar, but it wasn't like he didn't have any others. Despite his request being a rather… weird one, Sarabi decided that it was the least she could do for him. Sarafina took his left paw and scratched him from the angle to the base of his toe. Just as fast as she did that, she ran her paw over it, mending the wound, leaving a visible scar._

 _"Thank_ you _" Simba said hugging his mom one last time before he had to leave. "Am I… Am I going to have to fall like the last time…" Simba asked, wanting to know what to expect._

 _"Yea… Sorry but there's nothing I can do for you about that" Sarabi said. It wasn't going to hurt him, for it was only his soul returning back to his body, which happened to be all the way down there._

 _"Goodbye_ mom _" Simba said. "_ Goodbye _" Sarabi said. Shortly after, everything went black and just like before, he began falling. Unlike last time he knew what to expect, and watch as he was coming down at an angle, heading straight into the mouth of Pride Rock…_

 _ **(Reality)**_

Simba woke up with less of a start than before, knowing what to expect this time. He looked around the cave and saw that everyone was asleep. Just by looking out the mouth of the cave he could tell it was nearly midnight. There was no way he had been up there for almost three hours. Yet she said they did have different ways of passing time… maybe a clue?

Simba sighed an exhausted sigh. He laid back down, going to bed for real this time. _'Goodnight… Mom'_ Simba called out, wanting to see if she could hear him. A few seconds later he heard her voice. _"Goodnight, son"_ He heard his mother's voice respond. It was weird at first and he didn't understand it. It sounded like a thought, just in a different voice and he didn't think it. Without spending too much time thinking about it, he was quickly back to sleep, for good this time.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba slowly woke up the next mourning. He opened his eyes slightly to see that Nala and Mheetu were playing in one corner of the cave. Malka and Tama were talking near their normal sleeping spot. Chumvi and Kula were talking, with Chumvi acting pretty weary, and Tojo was still sleeping. Everything was normal, except for one thing…

Lying down in front of him was Sarafina, who was eagerly waiting for him to wake up. Simba wondered what could make her wait for him like this, then realized that his mother must have talked to her. Or at least that's what he thought, not seeing any other reason for her waiting like this.

"Mourning" Simba said, catching Sarafina attention. Sarafina quickly shot up and rushed him out of the cave. The first thing Simba noticed was the huge thunderstorm coming their way. It was the rainy season currently, meaning that is was raining off and on, but they would get a big storm like this once or twice a year.

"You won't believe me when I say this" Sarafina said sounding a little excited. Simba put two and two together and confirmed his mother was able to visit her last night.

"My mother visited you last night?" Simba asked, already knowing the answer.

"Ye... Yeah… How... How did you know that?" Sarafina asked unsure of how he guessed.

"I told her to. I knew that you missed her, and asked if she could pay you a visit" Simba asked, knowing it would have made her happy. Sarafina quickly hugged Simba. He didn't have to do that for her, yet he still did. Her happy moment was short-lived, as she saw her king approaching them. There was only one reason for Mufasa to come looking for them.

It was time… The second trial… was about to commence…

 **Ight so I already know some of y'all are gonna be mad that I added Sarabi in this story because she's dead. Well, let me learn Y'all some knowledge, In the movie The Lion King, Mufasa (Who is dead) Comes back as a cloud and talks to his son. So if Mufasa can turn into a cloud and talk to people when he's dead, Sarabi should be able to do the same seeing as she is a queen. So with that now said, Hope you guys enjoyed! Had fun writing this. This was 34 pages long… Yea… Long chapter. So the next trial will be in chapter 9, and someone of you might already have an idea as to what it is. Also if You want to see more of Malka, Chumvi, Tojo, Kula, and Mheetu, let me know. They are important characters, but they don't have nearly as much screen time as Simba, Nala, and Tama. Ima just say now, that chapter 10 will be mostly about the cubs. So I think that's all to be said for this chapter, Thanks for reading and see Y'all later! Mr_Toast Out!**


	9. The Storm

**Simba's Pain Chapter 9**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome Back, everybody! Just to give you guys a quick rundown of this chapter, There will be a trial, am I'm sure some of you already know what it is. Also, Next chapter there will be a trial... you'll read that later on. Also, as I said before, The whole dream thing with Sarabi won't be taking over the story but will get minor parts here and there. With all of that said, Enjoy!**

 **Also, this is just so stuff makes sense…**

 **Bold: i** nformation or A/N

 **Bold Italic:** Setting

 **Thoughts** : _'Example'_

 **Dream Speech:** _"Example"_

Happiness quickly turned into fear upon seeing the King approach them. Sarafina felt the urge to pull Simba closer, as a means of protecting him from the king's trails, yet she knew that wasn't her place. Simba felt the mood change and broke the hug.

He turned around and saw that his father was approaching him. He started to feel a fear of his own rise, not a fear of losing his life, but a fear of letting everyone down. Unlike last time, this time he actually was a little nervous. Looking down at the scar on his paw, his fear was quickly turned into confidence and he approached his father.

"It is time, Prince Simba" Mufasa said, giving his son an uneasy look. It wasn't a glare, yet it was far from welcoming at the same time. Malka, Chumvi, Tama, Kula, Nala, Mheetu, and Tojo, who was now awake, had all come to the mouth of the cave to see what was going on.

All of them except Mheetu felt their stomachs turn as they laid eyes on the king and prince. The only reason the Mufasa would ever approach his son was to give him another trial, which was almost his way of getting rid of him in a legal way.

"Why are we staring at them Nala?" Mheetu asked, unaware of Simba's relationship with his father and unaware of how serious this situation was.

"Shhh, we'll explain later" Nala said quieting her brother. This was a serious situation and the sudden outburst would have been considered disrespectful if he wasn't such a young cub. Mheetu didn't know why Nala was so quick to react but focused back towards the king and prince.

"This trial will test your survival skills. There is a bad storm coming. You will be forced to leave the cave and use your skills to help you survive, and you must take of your friends with you. You may not come back to Pride Rock at any time, must stay within our borders, and not take shelter at Rafiki's tree. If you break any of these rules, you will fail your trial and be disqualified overall. To pass, you and the other person must come back alive, and together" Mufasa said.

Of course, just like the previous trial, there was a likely chance that Simba would die. Mufasa wasn't trying to kill Simba, but being a king meant that you would almost always be in danger, and needed to prove that you had what it took to survive.

Simba looked over at his friends. He was going to have to take one of them, but which one would he take. He couldn't promise any one of them that they would come back alive. Storms were unpredictable and dangerous. Last time he was stuck in one, it didn't end so well.

All of his friends looked back at him. Malka, Chumvi, and Tojo were strong but knew little on how to survive. Nala would only slow him down, as much as he hated to admit it. He knew Tama could do it, but he knew he couldn't ask her to risk her life. Kula was strong as well, but he didn't know if she had the skill to survive a storm.

"How about this. Kula will accompany you on this trial. Bring her back alive, and you pass" Mufasa said. He knew that Kula had a fear of storms, and it would cause her to slow Simba down the most out of all the cubs. Kula went tense at hearing this. She looked at the approaching clouds and saw that they wear a very dark grey, almost black. She didn't want to do it, but it wasn't like she had a choice.

"There are no other caves in the Pride Lands big enough to fit both of you, so good luck" Mufasa said as he entered the cave. All eyes locked on Simba. Kula slowly started to walk up to him and stop when she was next to the larger male. She knew that he could do it, but feared that she would be the reason he would fail.

Simba gave Kula a reassuring nod, but It didn't help her. Nothing would. Nala walked up to Simba and placed her paw on his cheek. She brought his face down to hers and placed a kiss on his muzzle. Simba returned it, knowing that it would help her feel better. Last time he got caught in a storm, it didn't go so well for him, so he knew that she feared he wouldn't come back.

"I'll be ok. I'll see you soon" Simba said. Nala smiled and rested her head on his chest. She quickly pulled away, knowing that he would need to leave if he wanted to have any time to prepare.

"Goodbye, and Good luck" Nala said towards Simba and Kula, hoping that she would get to see both of their faces once more.

"Not Goodbye, But See you later" Simba said with a smile, before turning around and walking away, with Kula in tow. Nala felt a small wave of relief wash over her upon hearing him say "See you later, Instead of Goodbye.

The seven lions watched as Simba and Kula made their way into the savannah, all hoping that they would get to see them again. A huge boom of thunder erupted from above, slightly shaking the ground. They all knew that it was time to head back into the cave, and wait this monster out.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba and Kula had been walking away from Pride Rock when they felt the ground shake slightly as thunder erupted overhead. Kula jumped into the air, and her response didn't go unnoticed by Simba.

"Please tell me you aren't afraid of thunderstorms…" Simba said, hoping that she wasn't. It was hard enough to keep himself alive in them and even harder when there was someone with him. So if that person had a fear of storms, it would most likely be impossible.

"Umm… Well…" Kula said a little nervously, knowing that he would be frustrated when he found out. Simba sighed, knowing that she did indeed have a fear of them. "It's just that we don't have anywhere big enough for the both of us, and I don't want to have to wait it out alone" Kula said.

"There is one place" Simba said, earning him a surprised looked from Kula.

"But your father said that there wasn't anywhere where the both of us could fit" Kula said, knowing that she had heard him right.

"Nowhere that he knows of" Simba said. "There is a cave that Tama and I took shelter in. He doesn't know about it though. Nice to know that your king doesn't even know the lay of his own land" Simba said.

"Well let's go" Kula said, noticing that the rain was starting to fall. The two adolescents broke out into a run in the direction of the cave, as the rain started to fall harder and harder.

After around five minutes of running, it was raining so hard they have trouble seeing, and the wind was blowing so hard that it made it hard to run. "How much further?!" Kula yelled, barely being able to hear herself over the roaring winds.

"Not much further, Just pass-" Simba was saying, until he saw the condition of the path they needed to cross. Kula stepped up beside him and saw what he saw. The path in front of them had turned to a raging river of mud. It would have been suicide to try and cross it. They would have got stuck in the mud and would end up drowning.

"Uhh, Simba…" Kula said, not knowing what his next plan would be. They couldn't stay out in the open forever. They were starting to lose body heat and soon hypothermia would become just as deadly as the mud. "I know! There is another way! Follow me!" Simba yelled as he walked along the bank of the mid-river.

After walking for another five to ten minutes, the two arrived at an area that had large rocks, but a safe path on the other side. Kula then realized that his plan was to climb over the rocks, knowing that it would be the only stable ground they would be able to find. Kula looked around and below the rocks that they would have to climb and saw smaller, more pointed rocks that would impale them if they fell onto them. The larger rocks were wet and slippery. This path was just as dangerous as the river.

"Are you crazy?! We will slip and be impaled this way!" Kula said trying to reason with him.

"It's the only way! If we try to cross the river, we will get stuck in the mud. Once we get stuck, that is it! We will be dragged under and drown! If we bed down somewhere, we will die of hypothermia! This is our only chance! This is the only path that we can take with the greatest chance of making it out alive!" Simba said, hardly able to hear himself over the winds whistling between the rocks.

Simba pulled himself on top of the first rock and found it slippery. He turned around and helped Kula up. The two had officially made it past the first rock, now twenty more to go… "See, that wasn't so bad!" Simba said, trying to reassure Kula. Kula hugged onto him, fearing she may fall, but nodded to what he said.

Simba jumped to the next rock and landed successfully. He looked behind him to see that Kula was hesitating. "Kula! You have to trust in yourself. This is our only chance. Worst-case scenario, we either fall to our deaths, drown in mud, or die of hypothermia! I'd much rather fall to my death than either drown or freeze to death" Simba said, listing out her options. It wasn't really motivating at first, but Kula soon realized that this was the safest path, and if she had to die, it would offer the least painful death.

Kula jumped onto the next rock but landed with too much momentum. Kula started to panic upon seeing that she was going to slide off the rock and tensed up, and closed her eyes, not even attempting to stop herself. The fear of the storm, and the combined factor that she was most likely going to die just caused her to shut down. Almost falling over the edge and to her death, Kula felt a strong arm wrap around her and was pulled back.

Simba saw that she had over jumped and was able to reach her in time before she slipped off the edge.

Not having felt herself being impaled by a rock yet, Kula opened her eyes to see golden colored fur. She backed up a little to see that Simba had caught her and stopped her from slipping off. As soon as she went to thank him, Simba let go of her and jumped to the third rock. He knew that he was going to be pushing her as fast as she could go, but time was against them. The rocks were held in place by the dirt, and soon the dirt would turn into mud and the rocks would fall over.

Slowly but surely, the two cubs made their way over each and every one. The only problems they encountered were Kula over or under jumping and Simba having to almost get killed himself to save her. The real challenge came with the last jump. The final rock had shifted away from them due to the rain. The jump was long, and the slippery surface made it hard to jump from the rock they were on and latch on to the rock they wanted to get to.

"Simba, We can't make it! We have to turn around!" Kula said, knowing that she couldn't make that jump. Simba had the power in his back legs to propel himself the distance, but she knew that she didn't. Afraid that she was going to get left behind, she started to panic even more.

"We can't go back! The other rocks have moved to much! Were beyond the point of safe return! Trust me! We can do this!" Simba said. Kula turned around and saw that the other rocks had indeed moved. Kula knew that she had to jump, it was that only way.

The jump to the last rock was ten-ish feet, but some of the rocks that had shifted behind them had distances of fifteen to twenty feet. Maybe on a good day, they could jump that, but today it was slippery and windy, making every jump next to impossible.

Simba jumped, using all the power in his legs, and safely landed on the rock. He turned around and saw that Kula was measuring the distance, contemplating whether she could make the jump. "Kula! You have to jump! It's the only way!" Simba shouted.

"It's too far Simba! I won't make it!" Kula said, knowing how far she could jump, and then was just too long of a distance. Seconds later, the rock Kula was on started to shift. They both looked down and saw that the ground started to become mud, and the rock was starting to become loose.

Simba put his arm out, to catch Kula when she jumped. "Kula you have to! I'll catch you! I promise!" Simba shouted. He would catch her. No matter what, he would catch her. He wouldn't let her die.

"I can't!" Kula shouted, starting to cry a little. She felt the rock start to give more and more as the seconds went on. Cries quickly turned into sobs as she knew that this would be the end of the line for her.

"Kula you have to! If you don't you will die!" It's the only way!" Simba said. Kula knew he was right. The rock was going to fall into the river of mud soon, taking her with it. She looked at Simba's extended arm and knew that all she had to do was make it to his arm.

Kula backed up and did a running leap. The second her paws left the rock she knew that she would fall short, but she could maybe, just maybe, grab ahold of Simba's paw. She reached out towards Simba's paw and caught it with her own. When her back feet connected with the side of the rock, they slipped and the only thing keeping her from slipping with Simba's hold. Kula was dangling with one arm from Simba's paw and knew that she couldn't hold on with one paw forever.

"Simba!" Kula screamed. She looked below her and saw that the river was flowing relentlessly. She held on tighter, but she felt their wet paws start to slide. Acting purely on instinct, she dug her claws deep into his paw, stopping her from slipping his grip.

Simba roared slightly when she did this. It hurt like hell, but he didn't blame her. Using one arm, he swung her over his head and off of the rock he was on, onto the safe grass bank a few feet beyond them. It took all of his strength to do what he just did. He had basically just used one arm to lift something a little less than his own weight above his head and throw it ten or so feet. Simba quickly followed up by jumping off the rock and onto the grassy bank.

Wasting no time, he picked up Kula and put her on his back. With the cave in sight, he started to run. He could feel Kula's claws dig into his shoulders as she tried to grip him better, but pushed the pain away. Simba entered the cave, and let Kula roll off of him.

After what seemed like forever, they had finally made it into the cave and were safe. Kula quickly reattached herself to Simba and started crying into his chest. What she had just gone through was easily the most terrifying thing she had ever experienced by far.

Simba wrapped her into a hug, trying his best to comfort her. He knew that this had to be hard for her and that her fear had probably just grown a lot worse. "It's ok Kula, were safe, everything's ok" Simba said, finally being able to hear himself clearly without the raging rain and the roaring winds obstructing his hearing.

Still holding on for dear life, Kula opened one eye and looked around to see that she was safe inside of a cave. Refusing to let go, Kula at least let herself relax. Her heart was pounding and her head was spinning. The only thing she could think about was how she was dangling for Simba's arm, looking down at a muddy river that was waiting to drown her. Kula then remembered being flung into the air and landing on some grass, quickly being picked up, shortly after not feeling the rain falling on her anymore, and was then looking around a cave.

Even though they were in Africa, one of the hottest places there was, the rain was cold and her body wasn't used to being cold. "I-It's… c-c-cold" Kula said shivering. Simba was also cold, but just had a better way of dealing with it.

"I know, but were safe" Simba said. Kula felt safe and secure in his grasp, knowing that as long as she was in it, there was nothing that could possibly hurt her. Kula then understood why Nala liked it so much. To be able to feel so safe and so secure was a feeling that rarely ever came, and Nala had the ability to enjoy is almost whenever she wanted too.

"Now what?" Kula said after a few minutes of being able to calm down. They had both been able to safely make it into the cave without injury, but she had no idea how long the storm would last or what they were going to do in the meantime.

"We wait. It's not safe to go back outside. Luckily the wind is blowing the other direction, so the air in here is warm and should stay that way" Simba said. Kula nodded slowly, knowing that they would be safe these next few hours, or however long they would be stuck in the cave.

"Are you hurt?" Kula asked, wanting to make sure she didn't hurt him when she dug her claws into his paw and shoulders.

"No. My paw and shoulder are fine. How about you?" Simba asked.

"I'm good. Many close calls, but I'm ok" Kula said. Speaking too soon, her adrenaline rush began to crash, and she started to feel sick. "Simba… I'm going to throw up" Kula said in a sick voice while escaping his grasp and running to the front of the cave, barely making it in time before she started to vomit. The adrenaline crash had caused her to feel sick and ultimately caused her to throw up.

Upon vomiting a few more times, Kula felt a warm paw on her back. Simba knew it was the adrenaline, also knowing that there was nothing he could do for her. She was just going to have to let it pass, which luckily wouldn't take that long. "Just let it out" Simba said watching as she vomited once more. For some reason, Simba wasn't bothered by the sight of watching someone else throw up like many others were.

A few more minutes of periodically vomiting went by before Kula was just dry heaving. She had thrown up so many times that her stomach was empty, yet she was just kept making the motion and nothing came out.

Simba saw how Kula looked and could only describe it with one word. Miserable. She was scared, sick, cold, and wet. After five minutes since Kula first threw up, the urge to had finally gone away. Simba led her to the back of the cave where the two laid back down and Kula returned to his grasp.

Kula had positioned herself so that her back was up against his chest and abdomen, so in case she threw up again she wouldn't be vomiting on him. Kula felt safe, warm, and comfortable in his grasp, yet she just couldn't fall asleep.

"Thank you" Kula finally said, after realizing that she wouldn't fall asleep anytime soon, so just resorted to starting a conversation.

"Don't mention it. Glad I could help" Simba said. The two had finally dried off by now it the heat of the cave, and Kula took a moment to enjoy how soft Simba was.

 **(Ok, Being 100% honest, they wouldn't have dried off so quickly, but it's for your sake so just roll with it…)**

"I don't understand" Kula started.

"What?" Simba asked.

"You. You're so strong, yet so gentle. You're as solid as a rock, yet you have the softest fur out of all of us" Kula said. Simba was a little taken back by this. Noone had ever said anything about his fur being soft, so he was just a little surprised when she said it.

"You think my fur is soft?" Simba asked. He had never really felt anyone else fur to try and see how soft it was, so didn't really know what was soft and what wasn't.

"Yea" Kula said turning around so that she was facing towards Simba. She didn't feel sick anymore and knew that she wasn't going to vomit again, so she decided that the coast clear and turned around.

"You have a lot of qualities the differ from the other males. "You're stronger and leaner. You have softer fur. You have beautiful red eyes. Your mane is a bit bigger than the rest. And you never try to show any of these things off" Kula said.

Simba was slightly flattered when she said this. He had been told that he was muscular and lean plenty of times before, but no one had ever told him he had beautiful eyes or his mane was slightly bigger. "Thanks" Simba said. "So how do you know that my fur is the softest out of everyone else's?" Simba asked. He wasn't doubting her but wanted to know how she was able to come up with an answer like that.

"Because unlike other people I take the time to enjoy the qualities of a person that others overlook" Kula said. Simba hadn't really ever noticed this about Kula. She never seemed as outgoing and brave as some of the other cubs, but maybe she got to know a person by silently observing them.

"Never really noticed that about you" Simba said. Simba tried to think of some of the qualities that he may have overlooked in his friends but didn't find any. Having not had any friends for a long time, he made sure to never let the fact that he did now get to his head.

"Simba, I know this is a weird question, but how come it seems like you aren't scared of anything, yet… like… Well, it's it just that today you came close to death so many times, and risked your life for me. It just seems like you don't fear the idea of pain or death" Kula said. He was the bravest most selfless person she knew, and it just blew her mind as to how he did it.

"Well… It's just that I've always looked out for myself. Every time I got hurt, I just sucked it up. No one ever cared, and after a while, I just learned not to let it show, which lead me not to fear it, and then finally, no longer feel it the same way. And I know that I couldn't live with myself knowing you died and I had a chance to save you" Simba said.

Kula just didn't… understand. She understood… but it was just the fact that he was able to deal with all of that as a cub and still not give up. "You… Don't feel pain?" Kula asked. It was impossible to think that he didn't feel pain. It was a nervous response, and unless he had nerve damage, he felt pain.

"I feel pain. No matter what you do, you will always feel pain, but it doesn't feel the same anymore. When I was younger it was sharp shooting pain. Now… Now it's just dull and… well, I just don't… I don't know how to explain it really. It just doesn't slow me down anymore… Like I've built up a resistance to it. When you dug your claws in my arm, it hurt, but like always it felt dull and I was just able to ignore it. I don't even feel it anymore" Simba said, looking down to the puncture marks in his arm.

Kula just looked at him with a pitiful look. While most would think that it was cool he could ignore pain, she knew that the only reason he knew how to was that he lived with it every day for months. "Thank you… Again. For saving my life" Kula said.

"As I said, Don't mention it" Simba said. Kula just didn't understand how he could be so selfless. He saved her life, risking his in the process, and doesn't want anything in return. Kula closed her eyes and reset her face into his chest. Her moment was quickly ruined when she remembered that she couldn't fall asleep. Simba could sense her frustrated and wondered why she seemed irritated. "What's wrong?" Simba asked.

"I want to sleep, But I can't. It's this damn storm outside." Kula said. She was in the safest and softest arms in the entire pride lands, and she just couldn't fall asleep for the sake of her life. She remembers how Nala and Tama have both her told her how he could put them to sleep in a matter of seconds and was wondering why it wasn't working on her.

"Well, let's just hope that that the storm will let up soon so we can get some sleep" Simba said bringing his head down to the floor of the cave. Kula had planned that once the storm let up, they would head right back to pride rock, and was a little confused when he said he wanted to sleep after it passed.

"Can't we just head straight back to pride rock after the storm?" Kula asked. Even though she was inside a cave, the idea of having to be away from her family and most of her friends was unsettling to her.

"There will still be a lot of mud and it won't be safe to move. We'll need to wait until the mud has a chance to dry, and then we can head back" Simba said. Kula had completely forgotten about the mud. She groaned at the thought of having to wait a few extra hours for the mud to dry. Kula put he head back into his chest, attempting to get some sleep, knowing she would be in for a long night.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala was sitting in the entrance of Pride Rock, Looking out towards the pride lands. She had been up all night worried sick about Simba. Everything told her that enough was enough and that she needed to run out and go find him, but if she did, she would get him disqualified.

This was the worst storm she had seen in her life. Nala was born at the end of the rainy season last year, and so this was her first experience of a full rainy season. She could barely see past the tip of Pride Rock. The rain was falling so hard that it made it impossible to see what was past.

"He'll be ok" Tojo said, noticing that Nala had been sitting at the entrance of the cave ever since Simba and Kula had left. Nala looked around and saw that Tojo was making his way towards her.

"I know…" Nala said, lying to herself. "Oh, who am I kidding… I have no idea whether he's ok or not. For all we know he could already be dead" Nala said. Tojo knew that she worried about him, and it was hard for her to stay here when she knew he was in danger but was going to try and cheer her up.

"Don't say things like that Nala. Simba is strong. Stronger than I'll ever be. He's survived a bad storm once, and he can do it again" Tojo said trying to cheer her up. Nala gave him a small smile, before returning her gaze out to the pride lands… or at least to what she could see in the rain.

Tojo didn't really know what to do. He had a huge crush on her, but she was with Simba and didn't want to make it weird with his presence. He had expected her to say something back, but when she didn't he had no idea on what to do.

"Umm Nala" Tojo said, sounding a little nervous. Nala looked back and was surprised to see that he was standing there. She had expected him to have already left to go back with everyone else toward the back of the cave, where it's was the warmest.

"Yea?" Nala said, wondering what he needed.

"Umm… well…" Tojo said preparing himself to tell her something that he always imagined saying to her, but never had the courage to. "Look, I know that you love Simba, a lot, but I just need to get this off my chest. Nala… I love you. I always have and always will, but you choose Simba over me and I respect that. I just want you to be happy, but know that if you ever need something, I'll always be there to help" Tojo said trying to smile towards the end, but instead gave a frown. The last part was a lie, he wouldn't always be there for her. He had come up with a plan and knew that he would have to leave soon. Tojo turned around and started to walk away. He knew that she wouldn't accept his love, so there was no point in sticking around to hear what she had to say.

Nala stood there in shock. She had no idea that Tojo loved her, and what made it worse was that when she choose Simba, she had unknowingly broken his heart in the process. Nala broke her chain of thoughts and saw that Tojo was walking away, shoulders slumped and head hung low. She just couldn't let him think that she didn't care about him, and called out. "Wait" Nala said, in a soft tone.

Tojo quickly turned around upon hearing her voice, shocked that she had even thought twice about what he had said. He slowly started to make his way back over to her and stopped a few feet back.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Nala asked. Surely it had been bothering him, but why now.

"Umm… well…" Tojo said unsure of how he could say this last part. "I'm leaving the pride…" He said, and flinched at her reaction. Nala gave him a sad and hurt look, one he had never seen her wear before.

"What? You can't leave Tojo. You're nowhere near ready to survive on your own" Nala said wonder why he would even think of leaving.

"Nala, as sad as it is, there is nothing left for me here. There are four males and three females. When we were cubs, I always thought that since Malka and Tama were a couple, and that Chumvi and Kula were checking each other out, that you and I would one day get into a relationship. But now that you're with Simba, there is no one left for me" Tojo said, avoiding looking into her eyes.

Nala hadn't thought about that at all before. Being four males and three female cubs that were all the same age, one of the males would be left out. "But… no, you can't leave Tojo. This is your home, your family" Nala said getting a little emotional. She didn't love him as a lover, but she saw him as a brother, so did everyone else. So the idea of him leaving made Nala feel like she was losing someone close to her.

"Nala… I know this will be hard… but it's for the better. You guys are awesome. But for me… I'm a failure…" Tojo said feeling the urge to cry start to creep into his throat. "I look around and see that you guys have someone else to share love with, but I don't. I want to leave and find a lioness that I could maybe one-day share love with too" Tojo said, trying to swallow the urge to cry now.

"You're not a loser Tojo. You're funny, smart, and care about making people feel good. You can't just leave" Nala said, finding it hard not to shout at him. If she shouted, she would alert the entire pride to their conversations and with the storm, they had nowhere else to go.

"Well, maybe you don't think so… but I… I just want to know what romantic love feels like, and I can't find that here. I'm sorry, but you can't change my mind" Tojo said. He knew that by doing what he was doing, he was hurting Nalas feelings, but he knew that this was just something that was always meant to be.

"Well…" Nala said but had to stop and swallow a lump in her throat as tears starting to escape from her eyes. "Well if you actually gave a damn about me and truly loved me as you claim to you would know that this is wrong" Nala said, turning around and looking out the cave as the tears started to fall freely know. This was a hard time for Nala. Every day she risked losing Simba due to the trials, and now she was about to lose Tojo. How much longer before she starts to risk losing the others?

That hurt Tojo more than he could have possibly imagined. He wanted to find love, but he couldn't just leave knowing that he would hurt Nala doing so. Torn between his love for Nala and his drive to want to find someone who could return his love, he needed to make a decision.

"I…" Tojo started but his voice started to crack after that. "I do love you… but you will never love me back… and… I don't know how much more I can't take. Having to wake up every day to see you in Simbas arms, knowing that you'd never be in mine. Knowing that… knowing that you would do anything to protect him…" Tojo said but needed to stop briefly as he started to cry a little. "But you would never care if I lived or died" Tojo said before starting cry just a little bit more than before.

Nala didn't know why in the hell he thought that she wouldn't care if he died. He was like her brother and she would do anything to protect him as well. She knew that she didn't show him that like she showed Simba, but that didn't mean she doesn't care. "Tojo stop telling yourself lies! You know damn well enough that I care about you! So how could you ever say a thing like that!" Nala said raising her voice.

Tojo didn't know why he said what he said. When they were younger, and right before Simba became their friend, he tried every day to impress her and get to notice him more. But when Simba came along and captured her heart, it made him think that she never really cared about him.

"Because… Well… It's just because I used to try and impress you, but you never cared. I always tried to talk to you, but you never listened. I would always do little things to try and improve your day, but you never noticed. I just thought that you didn't care about me" Tojo said. Nala felt guilty. It was like her first time meeting Simba all over again. The guilt of knowing that you caused someone pain and suffering without really meaning to.

"I…" Nala started but honestly didn't know what to say. "Are you jealous of us… or mad?" Nala asked, hoping that he wasn't going to seek revenge for Simba taking her. Nala knew that Tojo wasn't like that, but then again love made people do questionable things.

"No… I…" Tojo said but didn't know how to tell her. "At first I didn't know what had happened. It was like all of a sudden… This nobody, No offense, came out of nowhere and stole the girl I had been trying to get for a while. Then I realized that he had something I didn't, but I didn't know what that something was… Over the past few months… or weeks… or however long it has been, I've just tried to not think about it, but at the end of the day, the urge to want to find someone that could love me the way I love you keeps growing, and there are no females my age left…" Tojo said, still refusing to break eye contact.

"What about Ariya?" Nala asked. Tojo choked on the lump in his throat and had to make sure he heard her right. Ariya wasn't even from there pride, so there was almost no way that a relationship between them could possibly work.

"Ariya is from the Riverside pride, and pride's don't share lionesses unless two members of the royal families are going to be married, which is arranged at birth. Plus she probably doesn't even remember me" Tojo said, wondering why Nala would recommend Ariya. It wasn't that he didn't like her, it was just that he and she couldn't be a couple. I would go against tradition.

"She had a crush on you, and trust me we girls never forget a crush" Nala said. Nala was trying to think of a way to get Tojo to stay. Tojo might not know it, but he was actually more important than he gave himself credit for. He would watch over her younger brother, help the pregnant mothers, and like today, make sure everyone was accounted for before the storm started.

"She… Ok, that was a long time ago and she is a princess for crying out loud!" Tojo said starting to get playfully irritated. He was a little annoyed that she had completely owned him with that statement and needed something to counter with.

"Second-born" Nala said with a smirk. Nala honestly didn't know she would be able to smirk at all this night. With Simba and Kula gone, and Tojo saying he wanted to leave, there was no room for fun or jokes, so smiling was something that she would have never thought she would be doing.

"Fine, how about this. Find a way to get Ariya over here, and I'll think about it, and until you can… If you can… I won't leave" Tojo said. Nala smirk was quickly wiped away at the thought of him leaving. She knew that once Ariya was here, he would most likely stay.

"Good. And I hope you know that I would never just let you leave" Nala said getting up to nuzzle him. Tojo was surprised by how she was acting. With everything going on, he would never have expected her to be acting this way, yet nonetheless, it made him happy that he was able to cheer her up.

"I know" Tojo said. "Hey, it's getting late and cold. Want to get some sleep" Tojo said, but then quickly realized what he said sounded a little creepy. "I mean like not together, of course, but like in general do you just want to go to bed as in not together or whatever" Tojo quickly followed up. Nala chuckled slightly at how he was acting. He was so goofy when he got nervous, which was something Simba never did.

"I would like that" Nala said as she hugged him. Tojo hugged her back, but they broke the hug and went to lie down when a gust of freezing wind came hurling into the cave. Upon lying down, Tojo left a few feet between him and Nala. He lied down on his side but felt something rest up against his back.

"I feel like you're going to have a hard time keeping Ariya happy if you're too scared to make simple moves Tojo" Nala said with a smile. Tojo chuckled for a second, but what she said got him thinking. Was being in a relationship all fun and games, or was it truly hell at times…

"Yeah... ok" Tojo said with a smile, knowing that she was just trying to make him nervous.

"Good Night" Nala said. "Sleep tight" Tojo followed up. "Dream of Ariya tonight" Nala said, having to try not to let a chuckle loose. "Shut up…" Tojo finished. Nala enjoyed the last laugh before the two young lions finally fell asleep.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Kula stirred as she woke up. The first thing that dawned upon her was the fact that she didn't remember falling asleep. She had a semi-nightmare about being stuck in the mud. It wasn't as detailed at a real nightmare, but it had just enough detail to make it creepy.

She opened her eyes and saw that it was dark. She knew about the storm but didn't hear the rain anymore and knew that it wasn't just dark outside. Kula thought about it for a second before having a terrifying thought.

Kula tried to move, but it felt like something was weighing her down. Thinking that her nightmare wasn't a dream and that she was actually stuck under mud, and lucky to not have drowned yet, Kula viciously started to claw her way out of said 'Mud'. Simba woke up when he briefly experienced a sharp pain on his left cheek. The next thing he knew was that Kula was growing to escape his grasp. Thinking that he had done something wrong to upset her, he quickly let go of her and fearfully backed into the corner.

Kula quickly shot up and the mourning light met her eyes. She saw that she was in a cave. Safe, warm, and dry. Realizing that she wasn't outside and stuck in the mud, she tried to remember what she was doing here. The memories of last night come flooding back to her and a new fear dawned upon her. The reason she couldn't see light was that she had fallen asleep in Simbas chest. Meaning that if she didn't claw the mud… She had clawed him. She quickly looked around and saw that Simba was backed up into a corner, and the left side of his face was starting to cover over in a thin coating of blood.

"Simba! I'm so sorry it was an accident! I thought I was stuck in mud so I initially tried to claw my way out but I see now that It was just you…" Kula said walking up to him and looked at the left side of his face. She had done a good job at cutting deep into his cheek. It would surely leave a scar if she didn't do anything about it soon.

"It's ok, It's just a scratched. So first thing first is that we need to-" Simba was saying but was cut off by the pain in his cheek when Kula started to lick the wound. His face was the one place that was still sensitive, so he had a much harder time pushing this pain in his cheek away.

"Kula… What… are… you… doing" Simba said between her painful licks. Kula ignored him momentarily as she tried to coat the wound in saliva. It was her fault that he was hurt, so she wanted to do all she could to make sure that it wouldn't leave a mark for life. After a few more seconds of cleaning out his wound, Kula was finally satisfied with her work and stopped.

"What I'm doing is making sure that you'll be ok" Kula said, inspecting her work further, looking for any flaws. "Nala is going to kill me when she sees this…" Kula said. Kula knew that Nala wouldn't be happy when she found out that she was responsible for this.

"You'll be fine" Simba said running his paw over the scratch, wincing slightly as he did so. Simba knew Nala wouldn't like that fact that he got hurt, per usual, but it wasn't like she would go after Kula when it was only just an accident.

"How come It's always you…" Kula muttered whilst turning around, thinking that Simba wouldn't be able to hear her.

"What do you mean by 'How come It's always you'? Simba asked. Kula hadn't expected him to hear that and turned around to face him. How he was able to tune his hearing so that he could hear certain things was something that she would never know. Well, she knew why and felt guilty about it, but she would never know how he could hear suck quiet sounds.

"I just wonder how come you always have to be the one that gets hurt. I mean with the first storm. Then your paw in the tunnels, and now this. It just seems that every time something happens, it seems you have to get hurt in some way" Kula said. Simba took a moment to realize that what she said was true. It did seem like every time something happened he was the one to get hurt.

"It's because I don't mind taking the fall for others" Simba said, before making his way to the mouth of the cave. Kula stood still for a moment and pondered what he had said. It blew her mind as to how selfless he was. She then realized that out of all the times he had gotten hurt recently, it had been because he was trying to protect one of them either directly, or indirectly.

Simba looked out towards the pride lands and saw a total mess. Fallen trees, rocks having shifted, large patches of dead grass killed by mud and debris that had been picked up and carried by the winds. Looking over all the paths that they could use to get back to Pride Rock, only one of them could be considered safe, but there was another problem.

The path offered no shade or no way for them to escape the heat. It was incredibly humid due to the fact that all the rainwater that didn't fall into the waterholes was currently being evaporated, and without shade, the walk back would be miserable.

"Wow…" Kula said as she saw what Simba did. If she thought the first storm did a number on the pride lands, then she had no idea as to what to think about this storm. "Ok, So how are we going to do this?" Kula asked, forgetting that they were going to be stuck in the cave for a while.

"Do what?" Simba asked not having expected her to forget so soon.

"Get home silly" Kula said playfully bumping into him. Simba internally sighed, knowing he would have to give her the same bad news twice now.

"We can't right now, remember. The mud and heat will make it impossible to get back" Simba said. Kula's playful look turned into a bummed out look. She was tired of this cave and just wanted to get home. Also, the fact that she was hungry didn't help either.

"Oh… Right…" Kula said, returning her gaze towards the pride lands. At this point, there was literally nothing they could do. They couldn't leave the cave, and the cave was only a few yards wide and about seven yards deep. Hardly enough room to be able to do anything except for sleeping and talking.

Kula watched as Simba made his way towards the back of the cave, and started to stretch. She watched as the muscles in his legs and abdomen started to flex and unflex with the motion of his body. How he was so lean, she would never know.

Kula could also see in detail the veins in his legs, studying how the branched off into new ones, creating a complex network of lines that ran along his body. Kula had never been able to see, let alone study veins like Simba's. The only time she got to see any veins at all was when she was eating.

Upon looking him over more thoroughly, she noticed many small, but visible scars that she was able to make out under his coat. He was truly intimidating and he looked as if he had been in many conflicts with other lions before. Yet despite all this, he was a very gentle and kind person. Also soft.

After stretching, Simba lied down and shut his eyes. He knew that waiting around all day with nothing to do would just plain out suck, so he resorted to what he always did when he was bored. Sleep.

Kula sighed when she saw him lie down to try and get some sleep. Unlike him, she couldn't just fall asleep at any given time. Once she was up, she was up. She could only ever find it easy to get some sleep when she was tired, unlike her friends.

Kula looked out towards the pride lands one last time before making her way towards the back of the cave as Simba had done. She knew that it was going to be a long few hours, and she was just going to try to past the time by sleeping. Well… if she was able to get any at all.

 **(TLKTLKTLKLTKLTK)**

Tojo slowly woke up and noticed that it had stopped raining. Taking his time to get up, he noticed that Nala was no longer next to him, but was at the mouth of that cave, impatiently waiting for Simba to return. He looked around to see that all of his friends had worried looks on their faces, and started to fear that something may have happened.

"Malka, what's going on?" Tojo asked as he approached his distressed friend. Malka looked up to see that Tojo had finally woken up.

"Simba and Kula aren't back yet…" Malka said quickly glancing outside the cave, then back towards his friend. Tojo felt somewhat realized that Malka hadn't told him something along the lines of Simba or Kula being dead… or something like that.

"So then why does everyone look so worried?" Tojo asked, looking around at Tama, Chumvi, and Nala seeing that they all looked worried sick.

"Because it's almost been an entire day since Simba and Kula left. The rain stopped hours ago and we had expected them to be back by now" Malka said, hoping that nothing bad happened to his two friends. Tojo then started to worry too, as he had also expected it wouldn't take them so long to get back.

"Simba and Kula are strong. They'll be ok. I know it" Tojo said with a smile, but it had no effect on Malka. Tojo looked over at Mheetu and saw that he was trying to play with one of the lionesses who looked like she was having a bad day. The lionesses were very nice and caring, but like all people, they had a breaking point. Tojo walked over to Mheetu and pulled him aside.

"Tojo, why won't the others play with me?" Mheetu asked as he looked towards the other adolescents. Tojo knew that Mheetu was too young to understand the trials, so he had to just come up with something on the spot.

"Well, Simba and Kula are doing something important right now and we're just worried that they may get hurt. But it's nothing to worry about really. They're strong and I believe that they can do it." Tojo said smiling at the young cub. Satisfied, Mheetu pounced on Tojo in a playful manner and tried to wrestle him to the ground, but was unsuccessful in doing so.

Nala heard some commotion in the back of the gave and turned her head to see what was going on. She smiled upon seeing her younger brother trying to take Tojo down. Mheetu was smaller and weaker, so he stood no chance at bringing down the older male, yet he still tried, and that was all that mattered to him.

Nala watched as Tojo made it look like he was trying his hardest, to further motivate Mheetu to knock him down, and chuckled a little. Even though she was worried sick right now, the two males messing around was still able to bring a smile to her face. _'Tojo, it seems that you're only good at getting my attention when you're not trying to'_ Nala thought with another chuckle.

Nala averted her attention back towards the Savanah, looking for any sign of movement that could be Simba and Kula returning. All she could do was wait and pray that they would come back safe and unharmed…

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Kula was blissfully sleeping when she felt something nudge the side of her face. She slowly opened her eyes and was met by the scratched face of Simba. "It's safe to head back now... kind of" Simba whispered to her, not wanting to startle her by accident.

Kula raced to her feet and was all revved up by that statement. After more than a full day of waiting in some stupid cave, she could finally go home and see her family again. "Finally" Kula said as she trotted towards the exit, but Simba caught her and pulled her back.

"Not so fast. It's still dangerous. One wrong move and were dead. So stay behind me" Simba said as he let her go, and took the lead. Kula wondered what he meant by 'dangerous'. Clearly, the mud was dry, seeing as he was allowing them to head back, so she started to wonder what he meant until she saw what he was walking about.

The mud was dry… at least some of it was. It was no longer flowing like a river, but it was still like undried cement. Kula looked from left to right and saw that all the paths they would normally use, were either still a mud lake, or had so many fallen trees on it that it would almost be impossible to cross.

"So how will we do this" Kula said as she didn't see any paths that would lead them home safely.

"We will walk along the banks. I'm not trying to scare you when I say this but you have to watch your step because if you fall in, there is a high chance that you'll die. The mud is no longer slippery, but sticky. You won't drown, but you'll get stuck until some other animal comes along and finishes you off" Simba said as he made his way out of the cave and down that bank of the path.

Kula wished he hadn't told her that. At least when you drowned it was over in a somewhat quick manner. But being stuck in the mud until you baked to death in the sun or some other animal came along and killed you wasn't a good way to die.

Kula carefully walked along the bank, which was at a forty-five degrees angle, which Simba didn't mention. She was putting a lot of stress on her ankles by walking on them at such an angle that she knew she would have to take often breaks. Kula wasn't paying attention, thinking about the wacky angle the bank was on when her left back leg slipped and she almost fell in. She was luckily able to catch herself before she hit the mud and became a victim of its cement-like properties.

"Careful" Simba said looking back, having seen that she almost fell. "Walk in my paw prints. That way you'll be on the path of least resistance" Simba said before turning around and continuing. Kula felt the adrenaline slowly start to leave her chest after her little episode, and felt an unpleasant feeling in her stomach, just like last night.

"Simba… I'm going to vomit… again" Kula said. Kula didn't know why, but ever since she left Pride Rock, the smallest amounts or adrenaline would cause her to vomit.

"You do what you got to do in order for us to keep on moving" Simba said as he watched her abdomen start to move in an unnormal way. He watched as she leaned over the river and vomit once into it. Luckily, she only vomited once this time, unlike last night where she had vomited multiple times.

"What's happening to me?" Kula said, slightly fearing that there was something wrong with her internally.

"Nothing. Sometimes high levels of adrenaline cause us to vomit. Also, stress can induce vomiting as well. Have both present at once, and Ta-dah!" Simba said motioning towards the pile of vomit that was being carried away by the river.

Simba turned back around and started to make his way down the river bank. He was trying to get home fast before the mud dried and would start to crumble. The water in the soil helped keep it together and solid, but once the water evaporated, the entire river bank would become unstable.

Having walked nonstop for almost half an hour now, Kula was beyond exhausted. She was hungry and tired, and the heat wasn't doing any favors for her. On top of that, she was too reluctant to ask Simba to slow down and was pushing herself to the limits just to keep up.

Kula watched as her vision started to blur and she started to stumble slightly. Simba heard her start to stumble and looked behind. She was drenched in sweat, hungry, dehydrated, and tired. She was in no condition to be walking.

Simba stopped and watched as she was about to just walk right into him. Simba wrapped her into a hug, causing her to collapse since he was supporting her, and put her on his back to that he stomach and chest were on top of his back, and her legs were draped around his side. Simba had an unbelievable amount of strength in his legs, and an even stronger core, so he knew that he could still make good progress with her on his back.

Simba looked around for any sign of clean water. He couldn't let her drink the muddy water, due to the fact that is was ninety percent mud and only ten percent water. Drinking from the river would just make her even sicker than she already was.

Simba located a small little water hole, that was surrounded by rocks that prevented mud from entering it. Simba let Kula roll off his back and into the water. Simba also got into the water to cool and enjoy a nice cold drink. He watched as Kula slowly started to drink the water, finally being able to relax for the first time since they left the cave.

After a five minute little break, Kula was back on Simba's back and the two made their way towards Pride Rock. Upon walking, Simba starting to notice the thing that truly bothered him. The mud was starting to crack and crumble before his paws. He stopped and looked around. He was that the bank was slowly starting to break apart and fall into the river. It wouldn't be long until the entire bank gave way, taking the two of them with it.

Being on the bank allowed for the tall grass to offer them some shade, seeing as they were on the lower ground, and the grass towered over them. Simba only had one choice. He would have to walk the rest of the way in the scorching sun.

The second he stepped out of the shade, he felt the temperature rise at least fifteen degrees Fahrenheit. Simba knew that it was going to be absolute hell walking in the sun, but it was his only choice. Not a minute after leaving the bank, Simba heard the entire thing break apart from the stable ground and create a mini-landslide as it entered the river.

With Pride Rock directly in front of him, and nothing else in the way, all Simba had to do was walk in a straight line…

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala was looking out towards the savannah when she saw part of a mud bank slide into a river. This did nothing but make her even more uneasy. All she was thinking about was what if Simba had been in the landslide, and how it would have buried him under the river, causing him to drown.

The next thing to catch her eye was movement. Some golden figure with a chocolate brown strip on its back. She had never seen such a strange looking creature and wondered what it was. Upon looking harder, her heart stopped as she thought that it was what she had been looking for all mourning.

It was Simba walking towards Pride Rock with Kula on his back. "They're Back!" Nala yelled, alerting everyone behind her. Mufasa, Sarafina, Malka, Tojo, Chumvi, Tama, and Mheetu all came running up towards the mouth of the cave to see that the two were indeed on there way back.

Relief washed over them all as they saw the prince come back with Kula. Nala went to meet up with Simba before he arrived, but the king held her back. "Not until he steps onto Pride Rock may you leave" He said before returning his gaze out to the two lions. Nala thought his rule was stupid, but then again she didn't want to risk getting him disqualified when he was basically done.

Slowly, Simba made his way with Kula on his back all the way up to Pride Rock, and up the rocks that led to it. Exhausted, he collapsed in front of them and presented himself and Kula in front of them, alive and unarmed. Just as the king had ordered.

Nala wasted no time and ran up to Simba and gave him a short little kiss before checking him over. Chumvi did the same with Kula, only without the kiss. After both Nala and Chumvi saw that they were only tired, they allowed themselves to relax.

"Well Done Prince Simba. You have passed your second trial" Mufasa said. Simba got up to his feet and stood at attention to show respect. "Your third and final trial will be held today, just before Sunset" Mufasa said.

"What!?" Everyone but Simba exclaimed. "Is there a problem with that" Mufasa said, wanting to know if anyone would test his authority like that again.

"Damn right there's a problem! You can't just send him back out on another suicide mission when he is tired. He needs rest and food before he does anything" Tama said getting up in her king's face. Sarafina quickly pulled Tama back, fearing that her outburst may have cost her her place among the pride.

"Very well. I just won't give it to him" Mufasa said as he turned around and pretended like he was going back into the cave. "Wait…" Simba called out towards his father. He was tired and hungry, but he would take his fathers stupid trial for his friends, and for Nala.

"I'll take it at sunset" Simba said, sounding defeated. All eyes turned to Simba as he collapsed from exhaustion. Sarafina went to check on him and was relieved to see that he had only fallen asleep while standing up, causing him to fall over. He was quickly back on his feet in no time with the help of Sarafina.

"Tip of Pride Rock, Sunset, Don't be late" Mufasa said as he turned around and went into the cave for real this time. Simba knew he was screwed. He was tired and in no condition to do another trial, but it was the only choice he had.

Simba watched as Tama stormed up to him with an angry face, grabbing him by the mane, and pulled him off to the side to talk to him. Simba really didn't have a choice seeing as Tama was practically dragging him by his mane, and tried to keep up.

"Umm, Excuse me? But, What in the hell do you think you're doing?" Tama asked in a voice that was a mixture of anger and sarcasm. Simba knew that she was referring to him agreeing to take the trail at sunset, even though he had already taken one today, and knew that he did the only thing there was to do.

"The only thing that I could have. I had to say yes. It was either that or I wouldn't take it at all" Simba said, trying to get her to let go of his mane. Tama let go and thought about what he had said. As much as she hated to admit it, he really did do the only thing that could have been done.

"Your father is the… I'm not even going to say that. All I know is that you're in no condition to be going back out there" Tama said in defeat.

"Look. I'm going to try and rest while I can. Wake me up at sunset" Simba said before walking in the cave. Tama looked behind her and saw the Nala was closely following hum, pestering him with questions.

"Damn it…" Tama said in frustration, before making her way back into the cave shortly after everyone else had.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba had fallen fast asleep with Nala by his side. Nala had tried to get him to talk to her, but he was set on just sleeping the remainder of the day. She had tried multiple times to wake him up by nudging him, nipping his ear, and even rolling him over, but no matter what she did, he just wouldn't wake up.

Nala sighed in defeat and laid down next to him. She was irritated that he was so reluctant to sleep. There was no way that he didn't know she was trying to get him up, which meant that he was just blatantly ignoring her.

After a few minutes of lying down, Nala felt Simba jolt up as if startled. Nala looked up to see that Simba was fully awake and shaking his head slightly. "Every time" Simba muttered under his breath, which Nala heard.

"Nightmare?" Nala said as she got up to check on him. Nala put two and two together and thought that since he jolted up, and had said 'Every time', he must have had a nightmare.

"Hmm… Oh, no" Simba said before lying back down. Nala was no longer irritated at him, she was now angry at him. She was sick and tired of him ignoring her and pushing her away. He was finally awake, so Nala was going to do everything in her power to keep him awake.

Nala nudged him rather roughly, and to her surprise, and got back up and looked at her. "Yea?" Simba said in a calm voice, wondering why she nudged him so hard. Nala really didn't know what to think. Five minutes ago she was trying her hardest to wake him up, but now she just nudged him and that worked.

"Are you ignoring me?" Nala asked, looking him directly in the eyes to try and see if she couldn't spot something that would tell her if he was lying or not.

"Of course not, why do you ask?" Simba said, but then realized what she meant. The reason why he didn't wake up was that he was seeking help from his mother, meaning that his body was left behind for a short period of time. And the reason he said 'Every time', was because every time he did so, he had to fall from the sky back towards his body.

"Because I tried to wake you up, really hard, but you never responded" Nala said, not seeing anything in his eyes change.

"Sorry, I'm just really tired" Simba said, which wasn't a total lie. Nala knew that no one could ever really be that tired. He was practically in a coma but she just dropped it seeing as she was finally able to get him to talk to her.

"It's alright, Just get some rest" Nala said looking outside of the cave. Sunset was almost upon them. Without another word, Simba rested his head in her lap and quickly fell asleep. Nala saw what he did and thought that it was kind of strange.

Normally, the male would be the one to embrace the female, seeing how in lions, males were the dominant gender. It was kind of funny how Nala was holding Simba. His head was in her lap, and his body was perpendicular to hers. Nala rested her head on top of Simbas and found it quite comfortable. For the first time that day, she could honestly say she was relaxed and felt comfortable.

She knew this could only last so long, and decided to enjoy it while it lasted. Sunset was coming fast, and Simba was already exhausted from the first trial. What Mufasa was doing was completely unfair, but they didn't have a choice. All they could do was pray that Simba could pass. There was so much pressure on the young lion's shoulders, and it was no one's place to ask him to take two trials in one day. This was the final trial, the hardest, the most intimating. This was no longer a group effort. At this point, everything relied on Simba's ability to endure his father's torment for the second time this day.

Nala opened her eyes. The sun was just above the mountain in the distance. They had run out of time. Nala saw her king make his way towards the tip of pride rock, waiting for the prince. Nala sighed. It was time. With that, she prepared to wake the prince up, fearing that everything they had worked for in the past, was about to be destroyed...

 **Man, Mufasa has no mercy when It comes to Simba. Two trials in one day… Hopefully, Simba has the energy to prevail. So the next chapter is the final trial! But what's after that… Well, let's just say that Mufasa won't give up his throne that easily. So hope Y'all enjoyed this chapter. It was fun to write and I love writing these kinds of stories. So expect chapter 10 to be out in no later than 14 days. I try to upload once a week, but sometimes that can be hard, but I will defiantly be able to upload once every two weeks. So that's all for this time. Y'all have a good one, Mr_Toast out!**


	10. The Last Straw

**Simba's Pain Chapter 10**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Chapter 10… Double digits… So the 3rd trial is about to take place! But surely that's not all… It's not like Mufasa will just hand his kingdom over so easily? Well… Let's just leave that part to Mufasa. So like I've said multiple times now, this is the final trial. Now there will be more after this. I also think I remember saying something about making this story 15-20 chapters long. So while the trials are over, there is still much to come. So with all that said and done, Enjoy!**

Simba felt something nudge into the side of his face ever so gently. He was exhausted and was tempted to just ignore it. However, Simba realized that his day was far from being over. He still had another trial to take, his finale trial, and surely the most challenging. Knowing it had to be sunset by now, Simba forced himself to get up.

Simba opened his eyes to see Nala's worried glare looking down at him. Simba gave her a small smile, before attempting to get up. He was able to get up on his paws, but found it hard… harder than he would have expected.

Every muscle in his body ached. Having used all his energy earlier in the day to make sure that he could get Kula safely back to Pride Rock, he left none for the afternoon. Simba had expected there to be some rule against giving two trials inside of a certain limit so that a king couldn't make the trials unfair.

Everyone saw Simba get up and start to make his way towards the tip of Pride Rock. No one would have expected a few hours to fly by so fast, and upon looking outside, their fears were confirmed as the sun was just above the mountains. Slowly, Sarafina, Mheetu, and the other adolescents made their way outside, wanting to know what torment Mufasa had planned for his son. It was weird. They wanted to know what the trial would be, but at the same time, they didn't.

"Prince Simba" Mufasa said, turning around, sensing the prince's arrival. Simba bowed his head in respect, letting the king know he had his attention and that he could continue. "Tonight, you will take your third trial" Mufasa added

"I have tested your scenes, and your ability to survive and keep a member of the pride safe at the same time, but I have not tested your decision making… at least not to my standers" Mufasa said, before looking past Simba to the six young adults and one cub behind him.

"Malka. Chumvi. Tojo. Nala. Tama. Kula. Mheetu. Step forth" Mufasa said. Upon hearing their names, they all felt their confidence drain away like the blood of a fresh kill in the rain. Not wanting to delay the trials in any way, they all stepped up and formed a line.

"Today, I will kill one of you" Mufasa in a serious tone, letting everyone know he wasn't joking while looking at Simba, then the rest of them. Fear… Everyone looked at each other to see what he meant, hoping to find out that the king was just playing some kind of joke. He surely wasn't going to kill them… but then again… he was the king. Who could stop him? Sarafina knew he was up to something. Surely he wasn't going to kill one of them, not unless he wanted to be met by an army of angry mothers… so what game was he playing... If he so much as touched one of them with the intentions of hurting them, every lioness in the pride would rally against him.

"And Prince Simba will tell me who to kill" Mufasa added after seeing he had successfully struck fear in each and every one of them.

Simba was frozen. He couldn't do this. He couldn't tell his father who to kill. Telling his father who to kill would have been no different than if he was going to kill them himself. He may be able to navigate tunnels and survive storms, but he couldn't tell his father who to kill.

"Prince Simba. You will have five minutes to tell me who to kill. If you have not selected anyone at the end of five minutes… I will kill everyone" Mufasa said. That was it. Simba was done for. He couldn't tell him who to kill. It just wasn't right. But if he didn't… then everyone would die.

This was an impossible question. No matter what answer he chose, someone would die. And if he didn't choose at all, everyone would die. "Your five minutes start now" Mufasa said, knowing that his son would fail.

Simba looked at each of the lions in front of him. Malka. Chumvi. Tojo. Nala. Tama. Kula. Mheetu. His friends… his family. But one of them was going to die, and it would be his fault. They all gave him looks of pure fear.

Simba kept looking into their eyes, knowing that this would be the last time he was going to be able to see a pair of those eyes with life in them. Simba closed his eyes and let his head drop. He had always known what needed to be done. Sometimes he didn't know how he would do it, but he always knew what needed to be done. But this time, no matter what he did, someone would die, and it was his fault.

"Four Minutes" Mufasa said as he watched his son shake his head, a clear sign of total confusion. Mufasa saw the way his son was acting and knew he was going to fail. Simba might be strong and have good senses, but he didn't have what it took to mentally be a king.

All kings must be ready to sacrifice someone from their pride if the situation calls for it. It's something that no king wants to do, but all good leaders must be ready to lose a man. The answer was so simple, but he knew that Simba didn't have what it took to find such an answer.

Who would he kill? A young cub he hardly knew? No. Mheetu was Nala's brother, and she'd never forgive him. Malka? No, Tama would never forgive him. Tama? Nope… Malka would never forgive him. Chumvi? No, Kula would never forgive him and vice-versa. Tojo? Nope, No one would ever forgive him. No matter who he picked, it would cause him to ruin his relationship with them. And Nala was out of the question.

"Three minutes" Mufasa called out, watching as the prince starting to fail under such pressure.

The group looked at Simba and knew he was in a mental war. They all knew that if he couldn't come up with an answer, they would all die. "Simba pick me!" Tama yelled out, willing to sacrifice herself for everyone else.

"Don't be ridiculous, I'll do it, pick me" Malka said, knowing that there was no reason as to why he should have a higher chance that everyone else.

"No! I'll do it" Tojo said. Being the only one not in a relationship, his death would be the easiest to overcome.

"Shut up!" Simba yelled, sounding enraged, simultaneously punching the solid rock ground as hard as he could, and heard a slight crack in his right paw. Everyone went quiet again at hearing his voice, knowing that whatever emotion was behind it was one they had never heard from anyone before.

"Two minutes" Mufasa added.

 _'Who damn it!? Who!? That son of a… grr… No! No one is going to die! No! Not today! Not ever! I will have died long before them!'_ Simba thought, sounding as if he had gone off the deep end. He started to go off in deep thoughts of how messed up his father was, that he let time get away from him... again...

"One Minute" Mufasa called out. The group began to get uneasy. At this point call who you hate the most and work it out with everyone else or else everyone is going to die. Simba wouldn't let anyone die, so to let them all die didn't seem logical either.

 _'Why can't it be me! … … … … why can't it be me? … … … … Maybe it can be! He said one of us. I am one of them! Plus he looked at me! Hah! Yes! The answer is me!'_ Simba thought, knowing that he would be the only logical answer. If he killed anyone else, it would show he was unworthy of leadership. A good leader is always ready to sacrifice himself for the lives of his teammates. The leader was part of the team, and any good teammate would sacrifice themselves for the life of another, no matter if they were a leader or a follower.

Mufasa began the countdown to failure, not surprised that his son was going to fail."Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven… Six… Five… Four… Three… Two-" "I choose my self!" Simba shouted, startling everyone. Mufasa stood there in disbelief. The prince was correct.

The young lions that stood before him stood as stiff as wood. Simba had just blurted out an answer at the last second, and their king had stopped the count down. This was it. Would they live, or were they all going to die?

Nala shed a tear upon hearing him say that. She honestly would join him in being killed. She couldn't live in a world where Simba wasn't. One way or another, she was going to make sure she had a way to stay with him, even if it was in the afterlife.

"Correct…" Mufasa said, still awing at how the prince answered right. "You have answered correctly Prince Simba. Congratulations, you have passed the final trial... and for anyone still wondering, I never had any intentions to kill anyone…" Mufasa said. "That will be all" He finished before walking into the cave, leaving behind the worlds most confused, relieved, frighten, and scared lions. He didn't expect Simba to pass this trial, not in the slightest, but it was far from over. Simba may have what it takes to be a king, but he still needs to learn how to think like a king, act like a king, Rule like a king. Mufasa continued on his way, knowing that the next few months to come would be some of the worst months of all their lives... the trails were just the beginning...

Wasting no time, Nala ran towards Simba, but Simba pushed her away… Nala stumbled back confused. For a second there, she honestly thought that he was going to be killed, and wanted nothing more than to be by his side.

"Simba..." Sarafina said as she approached the young lion, praying to the lions of the past that he wouldn't snap. For the first time ever, he looked broken. It was as if after all this time, that trial was what had broken him.

"No" Simba said as he tried to turn around, but felt Sarafina grab him by his mane and pull him back so he was facing him again. "Stop" Simba said, sounding irritated as he tried to swat her paw away, but Sarafina didn't let go. Simba could have easily broken free and landed a few good hits on her if he wanted to, but he knew better than to do something like that.

"No. You're not going anywhere but inside that cave to go get some sleep" Sarafina said glaring into his eyes, sounding as if she was his mother. Simba wanted to protest, but looked over her shoulder and saw everyone had taken a few steps forward and were concerned about him.

"Fine. But can I have a moment with Nala first… Alone" Simba said loud enough so the others could hear. Nala's spirit skyrocketed upon hearing this but was still confused. Moments ago she had been harshly rejected by him, and now he wanted to speak to her.

Sarafina nodded and let go. Sarafina knew that there was nothing she could do for Simba in a time like this. He never talked about what was bothering him, or at least just never told anyone in detail, so she didn't even bother trying to ask.

Sarafina turned around, and took the remaining six lions back into the cave, leaving Simba and Nala alone. It was officially night time now and it was dark outside, so Sarafina knew that they wouldn't stay out too long. Simba gave Nala a weak smile that anyone could have seen threw, hoping for some unknown reason that his half-assed attempt to cheer her up would work.

Nala saw his poor attempt at cheering her up and wondered what was going on in his head right now. First, he pushes her away, then wants to talk to her, now he is just smiling at her to cheer her up. Nala watched as his smile faded and he started to look around, unsure of what to do.

Nala slowly started to approach him, wanting to make sure that he was ok. Nala had been able to catch his eyes for just a few seconds at a time and saw something in them that made her feel uneasy. The usually reassuring look in his eyes was gone and had been replaced by something else, only she didn't know what that something was.

"You ok?" Nala said in a voice just above a whisper and she stopped a few inches away from him. She saw him hesitate slightly, a clear sign that he contemplating slightly on what he would say to her. Nala knew that he wasn't ok and that he was hiding something, but she was determined to find out.

"I…" Simba started but didn't know what to say. "What if… I was wrong" Simba said breaking eye contact and turning around. Simba felt Nala's paw start to turn him around and he didn't even try to fight back. Nala was the only person Simba didn't feel the need to try and break away from. Simba let Nala turn him back around, and met her gaze once again.

"You overthink things Simba. If you choose wrong, then you would have just simply failed. Your father said he was never going to kill anyone. It was just to put pressure on you. But you didn't fail, so why would you let the fact that you could have failed bother you. We were never in any danger" Nala said trying to help him realize that no one was ever going to die.

"But-" "No. It was just a trial. We're still here and that's all that matters" Nala said cutting Simba off before he could continue thinking about things that could now never happen.

"Ok" Simba said. The idea of them dying because of him faded, but then their words started to echo in his head. 'Simba Pick me!' 'Don't be ridiculous, I'll do it, Pick me!' 'No! I'll do it'. Those words were haunting his head right now. His friends were willing to die for him and the rest of the group, but he could never let that happen. He wouldn't let them die.

"Come on, Let's get some sleep" Nala said moving her face into his chest to give him a little nuzzle, something she had done countless times before. Simba smothered those thoughts. He took those thoughts and applied Nala's logic. That would never happen. It was just a trial so there was nothing to worry about.

"Nala?" Simba asked.

"Yes?" Nala responded, noticing that his voice sounded much calmer and relaxed than it had before.

"What now? I've completed the trials… but now what…" Simba asked. The past month had really just been preparation for the trials, and now that he had passed them, what was next?

"I don't know. King Mufasa will probably tell us" Nala said, taking a step back to make eye contact with him. Nala looked in his eyes and felt a wave of relief wash over her. The spark of light had returned inside his eyes, a sign that whatever had been bothering him, had passed.

"Something Isn't right…" Simba said in a shallow tone. Nala watched as he broke eye contact and look towards the cave to observe someone of the inside.

"What?" Nala said, lifting her paw to his cheek and moving his head so that his gaze met hers. Whatever plans they had to go back into the cave and get some sleep had been postponed.

"This can't be it… This just seems to easy. He has something else planned. I know it" Simba said. Nala took a moment and thought about what he said. Instead of being happy that he passed, he was skeptical.

"Maybe you're right, or maybe you're wrong. Look all I know is that you've passed and by the looks of it we'll have a lot of free time on our paws" Nala said smiling at the idea of finally being able to spend more time with her favorite lion.

"I hope I'm wrong" Simba said. Nala smiled at him and was delighted when he returned her smile. But Nala noticed something that was out of the ordinary. He had a playful look in his eyes. She had never played any games or done any kind of lovey-dovey stuff with him before, and was starting to feel like it was never too late to start.

"Whatever you're gonna do, Just do it already" Nala said with a chuckle and watched as his pupils dilated and he sprung forward. Caught off guard, Nala was pinned to the ground in a matter of seconds. "I didn't mean for you pin me!" Nala said angrily. She didn't mean to be so harsh, but she was just an emotional wreck right now and her anger found its time to shine.

Simba quickly got off of her and back up with a guilty facial expression. He had seen that they used to play that game a lot and knew that Nala was really good at it, but it upset him that he had upset her. Nala got back up and glared over at Simba, but her glare quickly turned to a look of pure concern when she saw that he was a few feet away for her, looking down with a guilty expression as he fidgeted with his paws.

"Simba… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so harsh towards you" Nala said as she approached him and was somewhat relieved when he looked up and met her gaze.

"I'm an idiot" Simba said in a guilty tone. He knew that he should have asked her first, and even with her apology he still felt like a jerk for pinning her.

"You're an idiot for thinking you're an idiot Simba. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that..." Nala said as she approached him and rested her face into his chest, finding it welcoming, safe, warm, and comfortable as always, but something wasn't right… Kula…

Nala hadn't noticed, but Kula's scent was all over Simba. Nala was still not a hundred percent on board with the idea of him sleeping with other females, even though it was normal.

"You… Slept with Kula… Didn't you…" Nala asked as she smelt one last time to confirm he smelt like her.

"Yea… Look she is scared of storms and I just wanted to help her" Simba said feeling even more guilty.

"I know. It's ok. I'm just not used to sharing… Anyway, I think it's my turn now" Nala said with a smile as she started to nuzzle into him, removing Kula's scent and replacing it with her own. Nala couldn't stop herself from doing this. It was an instinct after all.

"Why do you like to nuzzle me so much. And why do you like my chest and neck so much?" Simba asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

"Because I love you" Nala replied, not even taking the time to fully address the question. Simba rolled his eyes at how she was acting. She was so busy nuzzling him that she hadn't even realized that she was beginning to get carried away, and even starting to purr a little.

"Nala" Simba asked as he forced her away from his chest with much resistance, but at the same time getting her attention. "Why do you like to nuzzle me so much? Besides the fact that you love me" Simba said, knowing that there was another reason. He wasn't complaining, not one bit, but he had noticed that Nala really liked to nuzzle into his chest.

"Because… Well, it's just so soft, warm, comfortable, safe, and welcoming. And every time I nuzzle into you I feel like all the stress and worry in my life goes away, and I'm truly at peace for a short amount of time." Nala said before pushing back towards him and continued her assault on his chest. Simba chuckled slightly upon seeing how she was acting. He would never understand the females and their obsession over his coat. Nala, Tama, and Kula seemed to enjoy his coat for how soft and welcoming it was.

"When was the last time we kissed?" Simba asked as he wrapped an arm around her. Nala was a little surprised to hear this. This new more outgoing Simba was new to her. The Simba she had first met would have never dared pounce on her. Would have never have dared to hug her without permission, or bring up the topic of kissing unless Nala wanted to talk about it. Nala smiled slightly, happy that things had changed for the better.

"Just now" Nala said as she broke the hug, took a step back and caught his lips just as he had finished processing her words. Nala was doing mental backflips right now. What she had said was so romantic and perfect, while Simba… eh… he was trying to understand what she meant by 'just now', seeing as it had been more the forty-eight hours, but then realized that her plan was to say 'just now' and then kiss him to make it all romantic and stuff.

Nala was enjoying the kiss for a solid three seconds until she realized that Simba wasn't returning it. Nala nipped his lip ever so subtly, getting his full attention. Realizing his mistake, Simba quickly returned the kiss as to not irritate her any further.

Nala got a daring idea. She was going to test Simba. She wanted to see what he would allow her to get away with since he didn't care about the nip on the lip. Nala broke the kiss and pushed Simba over until he was on his back, and she gently pinned him so that he was lying down on his back, under her. Not really expecting him to resist at all, she continued.

Nala started to playfully nip at his jawline, careful to not upset him or cross any lines. Simba was a lot bigger and stronger than her, and male lions didn't allow lionesses to fall too far out of line, but Simba was different. Simba let Nala do whatever she wanted. Nala had full control over him which was weird.

After finishing nipping at his jawline, she started to play with his mane by running her paw through it and lightly pulling it. She was surprised to see that he was letting her get away with whatever she wanted, and what surprised her, even more, was that he was playfully swatting at her head, a sign that he thought they were just playing a game. He was totally relaxed and comfortable with what she was doing.

Even though the males were all young, Malka and Tojo would have never let her do this. An adult male wouldn't have let her pushed them down, a sub-adult wouldn't have allowed the mane pulling, and an adolescent wouldn't have allowed the jaw nipping. So why Simba?

Doing one last thing to test him, and probably the most suicidal, Nala pinned his shoulders to the ground harder this time and stood over him triumphantly, a clear sign that she was trying to enforce dominance over him. But like before, Simba didn't seem to care, he was just playfully smiling at her whilst making little flailing motions with his paws towards her head. Clearly, he thought this was some kind of game.

Nala got of Simba and helped him back up. "Why didn't you try and stop me?" Nala asked as she got up really close into Simba face, and was surprised to see that he was the one who submitted and backed up.

"Stop you from doing what?" Simba asked, clearly oblivious to what she was trying to do.

"Stop the pushing over, the jaw nipping, me playing with your mane, me pinning you down, or getting close into your face. Any male wouldn't let a lioness do any of that, and you clearly have the strength and experience to force me to submit to you" Nala asked as she roughly ran her paw through his mane, trying to agitate him.

"Because I could never force you to do anything. That was just all play and stuff. I don't really care what you do to me" Simba replied, and earned a shocked look from Nala.

"But… what… you're not serious. No male could possibly have that kind of patience and respect for a female" Nala said. It was just basic social hierarchy at that point, something even Simba understood. Males are the dominant gender in lions and that was finale.

"I am. I guess I'm not like the others" Simba said with a smile as he sat down. In a desperate last attempt to agitate him, something which was beyond stupid for a female to do, Nala tried to challenge Simba by acting like she was going to pounce on him, acting as if she wanted to fight him, but saw that he just stood there and smiled at her. Nala honestly didn't know what to say. He had so much power and authority, yet he didn't use it.

"Why don't you fight back?" Nala asked as she lightly patted his face with her paw in a futile attempt to annoy him…

"Why would I?" Simba asked as he didn't even flinch towards her paw.

"What would you do if another male tried to claim me as his mate?" Nala asked. At this point, it was instinct, not personality… No male lion, not a single one would stand by and allow another male to steal his mate or mates. The was almost like lion law, and there was no way that Simba could possibly let something like that go unanswered.

Simba chuckled a little at first before finally speaking up. "I wouldn't have to do anything. I have a feeling that if another lion ever physically touched you in a romantic way you would kill him before I got the chance to ever move" Simba said rolling over submissively to Nala, playfully swatting at her legs.

Surprised by him rolling over, and surprised by his response, she knew he was right. She chuckled a little as well knowing that if Malka or Tojo ever tried to make her submit, it would be the last thing either of them did.

"You're so weird" Nala said as she playfully put a paw on his head. Simba and Nala were having the best time of their lives right now. For the past month, they had done nothing but worry about the trials, and before that, they were worried about getting Simba accepted by the other cubs. So right now was the first time since they met that they had nothing to worry about.

"What are you two doing…" Asked a voice behind them. Embarrassed, Nala quickly turned around and made it look like nothing had ever happened, but Simba didn't really care and continued to lie on his back as he looked towards the source of the sound.

Simba and Nala both met the gaze of a very curious, and suspicious Tama, who looked to be watching them.

"Just messing around" Simba said as he took a swat and Nalas back right leg. Tama was wondering what was wrong with Simba. He was submitting to Nala, and he could easily win a fight against her. For example, this was like a Hippo making way for a turtle.

"Ok…" Tama said as she semi-cautiously approached Simba, wanting to see how he would react to her compared to Nala. Tama stood so that she was looking down at Simba who was still on his back, to where he was in front of her and they could just look straight up and down at each other.

Tama was utterly shocked to see that he threw a paw out in the air, playfully swatting at her as he had previously done with Nala, having no intention to connect any of his 'strikes'. Tama smiled a little and did the same thing. Just like Nala, Simba was a lot bigger than her, and Tama was starting to have a little to much fun with Simba to where Nala had to step in.

"Ok that's enough" Nala said, trying to make it sound like she wasn't disturbed by their little game. Like before, she wasn't jealous, just didn't want to share. She was possessive.

"Ok, I was wondering if I could stay with you two tonight" Tama said with a hint of hope in her eyes. Red flags and warning sirens went off inside of Nalas head, while Simba saw nothing wrong with her request.

"Sorry, But n-" "Sure" Nala was saying before Simba cut her off by accepting Tama's request. Nala knew her promise, but this was unacceptable. This was about to become war. Simba was Nala's male and Nala's male alone, and she was about to make it known... as if it already wasn't known well enough.

"What is with you and Kula?!" Nala said sounding frustrated, but not angry yet. Her outburst caught both Simba and Tama off guard, causing Simba to roll back over and get up in case anything went wrong between the two lionesses. "You two always want to sleep with him and I'm sick and tired of it. All I want is to remove you and Kula's foul scent from his coat and spend some quality alone time with him, but nooo, you just have to interrupt and ruin everything!" Nala said this time, in a quiet but angry voice so she didn't wake anyone up inside of Pride Rock.

"My foul scent?" Tama asked confused, not angry. As far as Tama knew, there was nothing wrong with her scent. The only thing that differed about hers was that it belonged to her...

"Yes. It's all over him. Every day I remove it, but it just miraculously happens to find its way back on to him, in the exact same spot every time. It's so strong and pungent on him! I mean -" Nala was saying before she was cut off.

"Nala, Stop" Simba said in a clearly authoritative tone. Simba knew that Nala had done nothing but worry for the past few days for his safety, and wanted nothing but alone time with him. He understood that right now she wasn't thinking clearly, and he was going to show her that his heart belonged to her. "Tama, I'm sorry, but not tonight. Check to see if either Chumvi, Malka, or Tojo are available, or worst-case scenario you'll just have to stay by yourself tonight" Simba said with sincerity in his voice.

Tama wasn't angry. She too understood what it was like being away from someone you were in a romantic relationship with, and how you wanted nothing more than to be with them. She would excuss Nala's outburst this one time though, as Tama was not known to be submissive… to anyone...

"Good Night" Tama said as she gave Simba the lightest, most gentle nuzzle she could have possibly given him before returning the den. Simba returned his glance towards Nala and was surprised to see she had a guilty look on her face.

"I shouldn't have yelled at her. If you want… you can… spend the night with… her" Nala managed to say, knowing that it would be hell for her, but it would serve as punishment for her actions.

"No, you shouldn't have" Simba started. Nala felt her heart sank upon hearing this. He was going to make her pay… "But I love you far too much to let you be alone" Simba finished with a smile. Nalas heart lifted its self back up, and she walked over towards him and buried her face deep into his chest.

"Let's stick to our original plan of getting some sleep" Nala said, wanting the day to be over before she had the chance of messing anything else up.

"Good idea" Simba said as he nuzzled her back, filling Nala's heart to the brim with happiness. The one thing Nala didn't like about Simba was that he didn't Nuzzle back that often, so right now she was happy that he was nuzzling her back, but to be honest, he was a far better kisser than nuzzle. Maybe she could teach him… Heh, teaching Simba to nuzzle would be something Nala was going to enjoy.

Not wasting any more time, the two young lovers made their way to the back of the cave and lied down. After a minute of kisses and nuzzles good night, the two fell asleep, leaving only one lioness in the entire pride awake…

Sarafina had stayed up to witness their 'moment alone' and didn't know that Simba's definition of a moment was over an hour. With heavy eyelids, she too made her way towards her usually sleeping area, wrapped up her youngest cub Mheetu into a protective hug, and fell asleep herself.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala slowly started to wake up and opened her eyes to see nothing but golden fur in her view. Wiggling ever so subtly, she got a good sense of where she was. Safe is Simbas arms. She moved her head out of his chest and looked up to see that Simba was still asleep.

It was almost noon, and she looked around to see that the rest of her friends were starting to get up as well, all expect Kula. The trial about surviving in the storm left both Simba and Kula depleted on energy, and would most likely get to spend the day just resting.

Nala looked from one side of the cave to the other and noticed that Tojo was sitting alone in the far corner of the cave. Nala followed his line of sight to Chumvi and Kula, who were next to each other, as with Malka and Tama, but looked away just before he got to her and Simba.

Simba and Nala were the only ones who were really sleeping with each other. The others were just sleeping next to each other, but Nala was safe and sound inside of Simbas arms, being in full contact with him.

Nala remembered back to their conversation the night before, about how Tojo said he would leave, but she was able to convince him to stay by saying she would bring Ariya over. Ariya was much like Nala, just a lot less aggressive and had a coat a few shades darker than her.

She was very nice and Nala knew that Tojo saw something in her. Maybe he didn't love her or have some huge crush on her, but he saw something in her that was worth a shot and made him stay. At first, it seemed obvious. Just cross the river to the east and enter the Riverside pride's territory, but then she would be a trespasser and could get in huge trouble for that.

The Baobab pride was the friendliest and most accepting pride that the pride lands knew of, but even they didn't take well to trespassers. Nala didn't know any of its members though, so she quickly went back to the idea of the Riverside pride.

Then it hit her. She could ask Zazu to deliver a message, but the only problem was that she hadn't seen him in a long time. She briefly remembered seeing him when she was really young, less than a few weeks old. The only reason she remembers him was that she kept thinking about how his beak looked like a banana. Luckily, Pride Rock offered so much protection that the lionesses didn't have to leave to give birth out of fear of predators.

The pride lands were the safest area in probably all of Africa, and Pride Rock was its centerpiece. Having cubs being born inside Pride Rock, the chances of a Newborn being killed by a predator was nearly impossible. The cave made it to where another animal could only attack from one side, and the animal would have to make it past an entire pride of lions before doing so.

Nala tried to think of who she could ask, and then she thought about Rafiki. Rafiki knew everything. Literally. He knew just about everyone in the pride lands, every name of every past king, and had an incredible amount of wisdom. Surely he would know a way to contact the Riverside pride.

Nala broke free of Simba's grasp with ease, waking him up in the process. This was the first time she had ever wanted to leave his grasp. Not that she didn't enjoy it, but because Tojo's patience was wearing thin and she needed to get Ariya over here.

"Hey" Simba said in a tired voice as he attempted to get up, but Nala gently put a paw on him telling him to stay down.

"Hey. I'm going to visit Rafiki. Stay here and get some sleep" Nala said as she gave the side of his face a gentle nuzzle.

"Won't be easy with you" Simba said as he let his head fall back onto the floor and let himself fall back asleep. Nala was touched by his comment and wanted to stay with him. Being able to sleep in with him all day was something she had always wanted to do, but just like every other time, something important came up.

Nala gave Simba a little kiss on the cheek before making her way out of the cave. She took a deep breathe in, before breaking out into a jog towards Rafiki's tree, hoping that he would have a way to contact the Riverside pride, or at least know someone who could.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Rafiki was meditating in his tree, listening to the voices of the lions from the past, when he heard someone calling his name from outside his tree. Rafiki opened his eyes and jumped up. For his old age, he was still very active and acrobatic, and swung down from his tree and landed right in front of Nala.

"Rafiki, We need to talk. It's Important" Nala said.

"Important you say?" Rafiki said as he observed how she was acting.

"Yes. I need to know if you know any way to contact the Riverside pride. They're on the other side of the river that lies on our eastern border" Nala said, giving him all the details.

"Ah! Da Riverside pride. Yes, I know of da Riverside Pride. King Asante and I go way back" Rafiki said, waving his hand from left to right as he said 'way'. Not to be rude, but Nala wasn't here to listen about his past, she only needed to know if Ariya could stay with them for a while.

"That's great Rafiki but I just need to know if you can contact them in any way" Nala said, trying her best to sound polite.

"I can do many t'ings" Rafiki said as he jumped back up into his tree and sat on a lower hanging branch so that Nala would still be able to see him.

"Ugh, No, That's not what I meant. Look Tojo wants to leave the pride because there is no longer anyone here that he can fall in love with. King Asante has a second born daughter that we met a while ago. Her name is Ariya and I think that if Tojo falls in love with her, He'll stay. At one point, Ariya had a crush on him and it seems that Tojo may have liked her at one point too." Nala said, trying to avoid all the games and whatnot Rafiki was known for saying.

Rafiki thought about it for a moment. Bringing another female into the pride would benefit them all, but at the same time, times were hard in the Riverside pride right now, and king Asante might not be willing to give up his only daughter to the pride lands.

"Hmm… It would be nice to have another female in da pride, and you do all already know 'er... I'll see what I can do" Rafiki said as he looked into Nala's pleading eyes. Nala's eyes lit up even further upon hearing this, but her mood was only short lived. "But I can make no promises. The Riverside pride is going through some difficult times, an I don't t'ink king Asante will be so willing to give up his only daughter" Rafiki said in a much more serious tone.

"Oh, well let's hope she can come. Our pride won't be the same without Tojo" Nala said in a saddened tone.

"Yes… Welp! Enough with all dis gloom and doom. Tell me, How are Simba and Tama doing?" Rafiki said, knowing he was going to be picking a bone that no one would dare touch.

"What do you mean 'How are Simba and Tama doing?" Nala said in a serious and suspicious voice.

"Well, de are great friends and what not. I was just asking how de they're doing" Rafiki said with a smile, making it sound like he didn't know about her problem with the other girls right now.

"Oh, yeah well they are just friends. And they are doing good" Nala said, still a little uneasy about the entire topic. She had had enough of Tama and Kula for one week and was just ready to return back to Pride Rock to check on her lion.

"Ah, well dat is always good. Anyway, I t'ink you look ready to leave" Rafiki said. In the last minute or so, Nala had subconsciously started to shift towards back a bit, making it look as if she was ready to leave.

"Yea. Well thanks for all your help, but I seriously got to go" Nala said as she turned around and jumped down for the tree and broke out into a run towards Pride Rock before Rafiki even had the chance to say anything.

"Ah, Young love… Young Love…" Rafiki muttered, before returning to his meditation.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala had run all the way back to Pride Rock without any incident, but the first sign of trouble she saw, was when she arrived at Pride Rock. Upon entering the cave, Nala saw that Simba wasn't inside, and she hadn't seen him by the water whole when she was coming in.

Nala turned her gaze towards where Tama should have been and saw that she wasn't there either. The only person who was in the corner was Malka. Nala didn't even need to guess whether or not Tama was with Simba, because she knew that she was.

Nala didn't mind the fact that she was, but she wanted to spend the day with Simba… Alone… as in just her… nobody else. Nala walked over to Malka and nudged him with her muzzle. Malka turned around and met Nala's gaze.

"If you're wondering where Simba is, He's out for a morning trot. Yes, Tama is with him. Where? He is taking the third trial off to the left of the waterhole" Malka said before turning back around and closing his eyes to rest.

Nala stood there a little confused as to how he knew all of that, or as to how he knew she was going to ask all of those questions. Nala gave him a weirded outlook, before turning around and running off to find Simba. She knew that he probably just wanted to hang out with her and he had every right to, it was just that she had planned to spend the day with him.

Nala exited Pride Rock, went towards the water whole, took the third trail on the left and saw fresh paw prints. Nala knew that they couldn't be any more than five minutes ahead of her, and they were only trotting.

Nala broke out into a run. If they were truly trotting, then it would only take her a few minutes to catch up with them.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala had been running for around four minutes when she started to make out Simba and Tama's figures trotting down the trial. She could tell that they were having a conversation, based on the way their heads were moving, but it was impossible to make out what they were talking about at such a distance.

Simba looked over to reply to Tama when he saw something else move in his peripheral vision. "Something's following us" Simba said as he slowed down and turned around. Tama did the same thing, ready for a fight and whatever was coming her way, but was surprised to see that is was only Nala.

"Simba!" Nala said once she was in shouting distance. Simba smiled at her and started to walk her way.

"Hey Nala" Simba said as she slowed down to a walk, and approached him. The two shared a short little nuzzle, before turning back towards Tama who was waiting for them.

Simba and Tama continued with their trot, now with Nala next to them. "Anyway, To answer your question, She's cute, charming, pretty, and all that, but I just never saw that… spark in her I guess" Simba said towards Tama. Nala choked on her own saliva upon hearing this. Simba calling another girl cute, charming, and pretty was rather unsettling to her.

"Who?" Nala asked suspiciously. Whatever they were talking about she was determined to find out.

"Huh, Oh, Tama was asking me if I ever had a crush on either Kula or her. The short answer is no. When I saw them I saw potential great friends and stuff, but there was never that extra spark of feeling I got when I saw them" Simba said turning his attention towards Nala. Relieved, Nala let herself relax, but soon wandered what he meant by the 'extra spark'.

"What do you mean by 'extra spark'?" Nala asked. Clearly, she had the extra spark. That was why he had a crush on her and not the others, yet she had no clue as to what that spark was.

"Well, it was the feeling I got in my chest every time I laid eyes on you. That uh… the energetic feeling in my chest. Almost like a spark" Simba said, trying his best to describe it. Unfortunately, a feeling wasn't something you could explain, you just had to hope the other person knew what you were talking about.

Nala smiled to herself upon hearing this. It made her happy to know that Simba saw something in her that he didn't see in the others. Something that made him choose her over the others. She didn't know what it was, but that question would be better to ask in private.

"Simba, weird question, and you will probably have no idea as to what I'm talking about, but do you ever remember when you were young, seeing a lioness who looked similar to Kula and I, but she had fur a few shades darker than mine? She didn't have a tuff of fur on top of her head like Tama does, and had green eyes" Nala asked, wanting to see if he knew who Ariya was.

"Uhh… maybe. Actually, yes. She was kinda like you just with a darker coat. What happened to her?" Simba asked. He remembered seeing her in the cave went he was scavenging for leftovers for around a week, but one day she wasn't there and never showed up again.

"Her name is Ariya, and she is from another pride. She was visiting us for a little while before she went back home. The reason I'm asking is she may be coming back, for a longer stay" Nala said.

Tama took a moment and thought about this. It wasn't that she didn't like Ariya, she was actually like a best friend to her, but she was confused as to why Nala would want to invite her. Nala was already possessive of Simba, so why did she want to bring another lioness into the equation…

"Why is she coming back?" Tama asked, wanting to see why Nala would risk the chance for even more competition.

"Well I'm not sure if she can or not, but… uh, Rafiki said times are hard for the Riverside pride right now and it might be better for her if she stays with us" Nala said, not wanting to say anything about Tojo. Tojo would tell everyone his problem when he felt like it if he even wanted to tell them at all, so she decided it best to let him tell everyone when he was ready.

"Well I hope things get better" Tama said. Things must have been really bad for a dad to want to send his only daughter away to keep her safe…

"Yea" Simba added, having no idea as to who Ariya really was, what the Riverside pride was, and what kind of hard times they were going through. Unfortunately for him, he knew very little about the things they knew. Having not been with them until recently, he missed out on a lot.

"Anyway, what do you guys have planned for today" Nala asked, hoping that they had just planned a morning trot.

"Well Simba and I are taking our mourning trot, then he and I are going to train, then he is going to teach me basic first aid, then… well, we haven't planned that far ahead yet" Tama said. Nala put on a causal face, but in reality, she was not in a good mood. She had planned for this to be her day alone with Simba, and it wasn't even mid day yet and someone had already messed it up.

"Oh… so you guys will be busy most of the day?" Nala asked, with a hint of sadness in her voice. She already knew the answer, yet it was almost like she wanted to confirm her fear.

"Yup" Tama responded, not having heard the sadness in her voice. Simba looked to his left and saw that Nala looked sad. She was looking down at her paws, watching them impact the ground while she jogged. Simba realized that he must have missed something in the conversation, as she had not appeared this way moments ago.

"Care to join us Nala?" Simba said, in an attempt to cheer her up. Nala was happy to hear his requests, yet it wouldn't be the same as if they were alone. Also, It didn't help that he would actually be doing stuff instead of being able to focus on her, yet it was time she could spend with him nonetheless.

"Sure" Nala said flashing him a smile, hoping he didn't catch her saddened expression that she wore a few seconds ago. She watched as he returned the smile before looking ahead once again.

The three of them trotted for another four to five minutes, before finding an opened out area that Simba liked. The two lionesses watched as Simba trotted around the clearing, patting the ground every few feet checking for something. "This will do" Simba said as he motioned for Tama to come up to him. Apparently, this was the 'training' part of the day, yet Nala had no idea as to what kind of training they were talking about.

"Alright, give me everything you got" Simba said as he took a defensive position. Nala watched as Tama went to pounce on him, claw unsheathed and baring her teeth, just as she would do if she was taking down her prey. Nala watched as Simba dodged her, and Tama started to violently lash out, attempting to cut Simba with each strike, yet Simba just dodged her with ease.

Nala saw that they weren't playing. Tama was actually trying to hurt Simba. She was putting power and force behind each blow, attempting to make them connect. Nala felt a feeling she had never felt before, a feeling of pure fear and rage. Another lioness was attempting to hurt her male, and some thousand-year-old instinct was digging its way to the surface.

Just as Nala was about to jump in and join Simba's side, something made her stop.

"Stop, Stop, Stop…" Simba said as he caught Tamas' arms and used his strength to slow them down instantly. "Same problem as last time. You need to focus. You're just randomly striking with no technique, hoping that one of your blows will land" Simba said as he let go on her arms and took a step back.

Tama thought that she was doing better, but clearly, she wasn't. "Well, then was should I do" Tama asked. Nala watched confused as to how they were talking so calmly. Not ten seconds ago Tama was trying to kill her, yet with three words they were best pals again.

"Well first off, you need to observe your opponent, Size them up. Don't take this the wrong way but I'm a lot bigger and stronger than you. So I don't know why you're trying to herd me around when I could easily overpower you. You need to wait for me to strike, and during the time I'm bringing my arm back so I can strike again, that's when you go" Simba said, watching as Tama nodded her head.

Nala realized that this was a fighting lesson, yet it just looked so real. Nala watched as Simba slowly pretended to strike Tama, but she would dodge it, and just as he was bringing his arm back, Tama would also slowly pretend to strike, just as he had told her. They did this a few more times, a little faster each time so Tama got the hang of it.

"Now you're getting it. So in any scenario, a hippo is going to win against a lion when it comes to strength. But if the Lions use proper technique, then that's when the lion can use the hippos strength against him. Cause him to put all his effort into his offense, but save none for his defense" Simba said making sure she understood where he was coming from.

"Yeah. I uhh… I don't know… It's just that I'm afraid of losing. Because loosing would mean I would die, and well then… I'm dead I guess. I either go full offense or full defense, I can never do both if you get what I'm saying " Tama said looking down at her paws.

Tama felt a paw under her chin that lifted her head up and moved its way towards her cheek. Tama was now looking deep into Simbas eyes, peering through the gateway to his sole, thoroughly studying it. "Tama" Simba said with a serious voice, and wore an even more serious facial expression. "It's the person that's willing to die, who will win that fight. And I know If I'm going to have any life anymore, it's because I'm stilling willing to fight… and die…" Simba said in a voice that gave Tama goosebumps and sent shivered down her spine.

Tama felt weak at that moment. Simbas words echoed in her head. The way he said that made him seem so strong, so brave, so wise… Tama stared in awe into his eyes, before finally remembering to blink.

"Thank you" Tama said, closing her eyes and letting her head fall. She didn't really know why she said she was thankful, nor did she know what there was to be thankful for, but what he had said just made her find some new confidence that she had previously been unsuccessful in obtaining.

Nala saw how Tama let her head rest in Simba's paw. She didn't know why it made her feel so uneasy. Literally, all she was doing was resting her head on his paw, yet something inside of Nalas head told her to break up their little moment.

Just as soon as their moment started, it was over when Tama attempted to pin Simba by running into him and trying to flip him over, hoping to catch him off guard. Tama's efforts were short-lived, as she found herself being the one pinned on the ground. Tama stared up at him in amazement. She knew that there was no way that he could have know she was going to do that.

"Lesson two, Expect the unexpected" Simba said with a smirk.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

The rest of the morning went as planned. Simba finished up with with the fighting lesson and got to working with Tama on basic first aid. He taught her how to stop intensive bleeding, what to do if someone passes out, and the different material you can use to make a bandage.

Tama had just left to return to Pride Rock. Her mother wanted her back by noon for some kind of hunting demonstration thing. Nala was finally alone with Simba and was about to ask him what he would like to do before someone else beat her to it.

"Hey, Simba!" Kula said. Nala turned around to see Kula trotting towards them. Just as she thought she would have some alone time, Kula showed up. Nala expected Kula to stop but was surprised when she ran straight into him and pinned him.

Kula let her arms relax and fell on top of Simba, before rolling off to the side. Nala observed that something was different about her. She seemed to be more playful and friendly today. Not that she wasn't ever playful or friendly. But she just seemed a lot more towards Simba in particular.

"You ready?" Kula asked as she got back up and pinned him once again. Nala's entire body went stiff upon hearing the words 'You ready?'. This could only mean one thing… Simba and Kula had made plans for the afternoon already…

Something about Kula made Nala uneasy. She seemed to be far too happy and cheery. She was laughing and smiling whilst pinning Simba to the ground, almost like… almost like she was flirting…

"Kula, hate to break it to ya but I have plans with Nala this afternoon. Sorry, but maybe another time?" Simba said he slowly started to push her off him. At first, Kula was a little disappointed, but she knew that Nala wanted alone time with Simba and she could always come back later.

"That's ok, and anytime works for me" Kula said as she got off of him. Kula bided him a farewell and departed into the bush.

"What was that all about?" Nala said she approached Simba. She had never seen Kula act that way before, and she came across almost as flirtatious.

"Oh… uh… can't say" Simba said. He had promised Kula he wouldn't tell anyone, and that was what he was going to do.

Nala went to counter but decided it best to not push it any further. Nala had run into a problem. She had been spending the entire day trying to get Simba alone and didn't have any idea as to what she wanted to do.

Nala walked over to Simba, who was still on his back, and got over him with her front paws beside his shoulders and her back paws near his back paws. Nala looked deep into his eyes, trying to spot if anything told her that she crossed a line. She wasn't all that surprised to see that he was just giving her a curious look.

Slowly, Nala brought her face closer and closer towards his, until her muzzle every so lightly contacted his. She felt like her heart was about to burst out of her chest. For some unknown reason, she was extraordinarily nervous right now. She quickly felt Simba return the kiss, just as gently.

Nala was incredibly nervous over such a small kiss. She had given Simba plenty of kisses before, but she hadn't been this nervous before, not even during there first kiss. Nala smiled as she remembered back to that fateful night...

Nala wasn't sure if she had ever given such a gentle kiss before, but soon that would all change. Nala deepened the kiss slightly and felt Simba do the same. Deepening it one last time, ever so slightly, she felt Simba copy her. The kiss lasted only a minute before the two separated for air.

After a quick breather, the two were back to kissing. Countless minutes went by as the two continued to kiss, depending on the kiss every so often. They were losing track of time and had absolutely no idea as to how long they had been kissing... or... at least Nala had...

An hour later, they were still kissing… Same position, yet the kiss had been deepened tenfold at this time and it was way more passionate. They had only broken it for air, and Sarafina had been sitting in the bush watching the two for the entire hour. At first, she gave the young couple their privacy, but after fifteen minutes of non-stop kissing, she knew that they weren't going to stop anytime soon, and an hour later she was still waiting for them to stop.

Sarafina could only wonder how the two had been able to keep this up for so long. They had to have set some new kind of record by now. Sarafina was watching her daughters behavior, more than the kiss itself. She watched as Nala continued to play a dangerous game with Simba. Currently, Nala was pinning Simba to the ground and lording over him as if she was the dominant lion.

Sarafina watched in amazement as Simba seemed to not care about the way Nala was acting, and just seemed to go with it. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Nala broke the kiss and lifted her head. The two young lions used this time to catch their breaths as they stared into the other's eyes.

"I love you" Nala said as she let herself fall on top of Simba and snuggle into his fur. Standing over him like that for over an hour killed her legs. It was still a few hours before sunset and Nala still had much planned.

"I love you more" Simba countered.

"I love you the most" Nala said as she nuzzled deeper into his chest, smirking at what she just said.

"Well, I love you more… then the most… yeah" Simba replied, having no idea as to what he just said.

"But you can't love me more if I love you the most" Nala said.

"Well I do" Simba replied

Nala opened her eyes to see that the sun had moved a lot during the time they shared their short little kiss. "Uh, Simba… How long were we kissing…" Nala asked as she got up. It felt like maybe a minute, but the sun was in a completely different position than before.

"I'd say about an hour. Maybe a little more" Simba said. Nala stood up quickly and took a few steps back, and started to pace around. Unlike Nala, Simba was actually keeping track of time.

"What!? Why didn't you tell me!" Nala said as she gave him a dumb look. Nala didn't understand why he would lie on the ground for over an hour and just continue to kiss her. The kiss seemed to only last a few minutes for her.

"I thought you knew. And you were purring really loud. I didn't want to disturb you" Simba said. Nala hid her face in embarrassment upon hearing this. She didn't know why she purred, she just did and could never control it.

"Sorry…" Nala said as she gave him a weak smile. "I guess I just got lost in the moment" Nala added.

"I didn't mind" Simba said with a smirk. Nala smiled and rolled her eyes. She was going to have to get used to Simbas newer sense of humor and his more outgoing attitude.

"We should probably head back before my mother comes looking for us" Nala said as she looked at the suns position once more, not knowing that Sarafina had already found them.

"Won't be necessary…" Sarafina said as she exited the bush. Nala turned around and went pale upon seeing her mother. Her first reaction was that she was in deep trouble for staying out too long and not telling her where she was. Nala left early in the mourning to go visit Rafiki and only came back to check for Simba, never telling her mother where she was, or where she was going to go.

"Mom I can explain. So this mourning I was -" "No need to dear, you're not in trouble. Kiss your boyfriend goodbye for now and head back to Pride Rock please" Sarafina said politely, cutting Nala off. Nala felt a little embarrassed that her mother said to kiss her boyfriend goodbye, even though she just spent over an hour kissing him non-stop.

Nala gave Simba a quick little peck, before moving to turn away. She paused, however, and turned back around and place 'one last' kiss on his muzzle, before placing another… then another… then one more…

Sarafina cleared her throat rather loud as to get her daughters attention and tell her that she was waiting. Nala broke the kiss and gave Simba a little nuzzle before leaving for good this time, heading back to Pride Rock.

"We need to talk" Sarafina said in a much more serious voice this time. Simba looked back towards her, fearing that she was bringing some news about his fathers next steps to screwing him over.

"Is it about my father?" Simba asked, fearing that she would say yes. He was relieved to see that she shook her from side to side upon hearing him, but he soon wondered why she sounded so serious.

"No, It's about you actually. You've changed and I just wanted to talk to you" Sarafina said in a much more relaxed voice, and with a slight smile.

"Oh, so what's wrong with me?" Simba asked casually. He may have changed, but his past still made itself known in the way he talked and acted

"Nothing. I just wanted to have a chat with you" Sarafina said. She knew that he would never fully recover and that there would always be that little bit of his past that would hold him back in some situations, but she was going to work to minimalize that to the best of her ability.

"Oh" Simba said awkwardly. He didn't really understand Sarafina. He knew she was his friend and all, but he almost never talked to her or socialize with her in any way. He felt like he used to know her well when he was really young, but he was unsure of it and didn't want to ask her and make it all weird.

"So things are finally looking good for you. The others have accepted you, you've passed all the trials, everyone is safe right now" Sarafina said testing Simba, wanting to know how much he trusted her with the truth. The truth was that the others had accepted him, everyone was safe, but he was far from being done with his father. Sarafina knew Mufasa and knew that the trials weren't the only thing he would throw at Simba. Simba may have passed the trials, but he still had no clue as to how to be a king or how to run a kingdom.

"Yea, Yea, All is good" Simba said lying with a smile. He trusted her, and she knew almost everything there was to know about him, yet for some reason, he just felt like lying to her would be the better solution.

Sarafina sighed loudly upon hearing this, alerting Simba that she didn't like his answer. "Everything isn't alright Simba, and you know this too. You know it as much as I do. It's your father" Sarafina said, removing her smile and putting on a much more stoic face. Simba let the smile on his face relax and turn into a somewhat less stoic expression that what Sarafina wore.

"Yea… I don't know why I even lied there. You know everything about me really, and yea, It's my father. I know he will have something else planned for me. I mean the last trial is proof. It was so short and too easy to be a 'final trial'" Simba said. Sarafina nodded, telling him he was right.

The last trial may have seemed hard, but at the end of the day, it was just one question. A question that would have taken little thought by anyone who had what it took to be a leader. As much as they both hated to admit it, they knew Mufasa had something else planned for him.

"Aside from that, you need to be careful" Sarafina said, confusing Simba in the process.

"Careful of what…" Simba asked, unsure of what he had to be careful about.

"Careful around Tama and Kula. Apart from Nala being jealous and possessive, I do agree that some of the things you do with them would annoy just about anyone" Sarafina said, making Simba feel somewhat guilty now.

"Like…" Simba asked, wanting to make sure he wasn't doing anything that was considered cheating. The one thing that truly terrified Simba was the idea of hurting Nala. Whether it was physical or emotional, it would all be pain in the end.

"You spend a lot of time with them and are really close friends with them. Really, Really close friends with them. I know you don't like them the same way you like Nala, but if she found out some of the things you've said to them, like confessing you loved Tama like a sister, she would most likely lose her cool" Sarafina warned Simba.

"Whaa… How do you know I told Tama I loved her…" Simba asked in disbelief. He and Tama were the only two in the area, and he was sure of it.

"Overheard you. I know you don't feel any romantic connections to her, but if Nala ever found out that you said 'I love you' to her regardless of how it was used, she would go crazy. She is too young to understand right now, and I just want you to be careful before she started to get suspicious and finds out too soon" Sarafina said, making sure he understood her this time.

"Oh…" Simba said feeling dumb at that moment. "I don't know what it is, but I have this weird connection with Tama. One I don't have with anyone else. I don't know if it's trust… or… love… but sometimes being around her just helps me understand some of the problems inside of me" Simba replied guiltily. The more he talked about it, the more he realized that he could possibly be doing something wrong.

"Simba there is nothing wrong with that. Everyone has that one person in their life who helps them overcome their struggles, and you have done nothing wrong. I don't want you thinking that you need to exclude her from your life, that would only hurt you both. The truth is Tama feels the same ways towards you. I don't fear that you're going to fall in love with her, I fear that my daughter will take this all the wrong way and do something stupid" Sarafina said, hoping Simba understood where she was coming from this time.

"I feel like Nala doesn't understand how much I love her. She fears that either Kula or Tama with capture my heart as she did, but no matter how many times I tell her or show her that I love her and only her, she continues to try and prevent me from spending time with them" Simba said sounding somewhat hurt. "I love Nala and want to be with her. Tama and Kula are great friends and I want to stay friends with them too. I fear that at one point I'm going to have to choose to stay with Nala, the one who I love, and lose my two best friends. Or stay with my two best friends, and lose the one I love" Simba said shutting his eyes tight and letting his head fall.

Sarafina felt awful for Simba. He was torn between his love for one lion and his friendship with two others. Sarafina knew that this pain was caused by her daughter. Sarafina also knew that Nala would never intentionally hurt Simba, but she had still managed to do a good number on him nonetheless.

"Nala would never do that" Sarafina lied. The truth was that Nala was stupid enough to do something like that, yet Sarafina didn't want to make him worry.

"Stop lying! You know damn well enough that she would, and she will!" Simba snapped, in a voice that was a mixture of pain and anger. Sarafina sighed and closed her eyes. Simba knew the truth and he was right. At some point, Nala would give him an ultimatum and it would destroy him.

"I do, and I'm working on that" Sarafina said calmly, watching Simba as he looked like he was falling apart from the inside out. She looked at the broken cub with a deep sadness in her eyes. This was one of those situations where you had to be careful. One wrong move and everything would go south real quick. All Sarafina was trying to do was prevent Nala from doing something stupid without interfering too much.

"Sorry, I… shouldn't have yelled at you like that" Simba said calming himself down. No matter what, life would always be hard on him. First, it was a lifetime of rejection, then the trials, and now an over-possessive girlfriend that threaten to ruin his friendship with his two best friends.

"It's ok. Kula wanted to talk to you by the way… and I'm sure Nala won't like it so…" Sarafina said. She had no idea why Nala was so possessive, but she was about to find out.

"I'll see what she wants. In the meantime… could you maybe to talk to Nala and see if you can't help her in any way?" Simba asked, hoping that Sarafina would be able to help her since he couldn't.

"I'd be happy to…" Sarafina said. She nodded and went off towards where her daughter would be. Nala was heading in the direction of Simba's hideout, even though Sarafina told Nala to head back to Pride Rock, so that's where she would check first. Without looking back again, Sarafina broke into a light trot towards Simba's hideout, preparing to unload on her daughter...

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala was lying around Simba's hideout, day-dreaming of her golden brown cub... adolescent... when she heard someone approaching her. She got up excited, thinking it would be Simba, but he excitement quickly turned to fear upon seeing her mother trotting up to her. Upon first glance, Nala could tell she was pissed…

"Mom? Is everything alrig-" "Shut your goddamn mouth" Sarafina barked, cutting Nala off in the most hostile voice Nala had ever heard her mother use. Nala's ears laid flat against her head, and she cowered away from her mother upon hearing her voice and choice of vocabulary.

"Now It seems I was far to easy on you with our last chat, so I'm going to make sure you understand this time!" Sarafina yelled at her daughter. She knew her daughter was going to hate her after this, but in the long run, she was doing her a favor by helping her not do something that might end up hurting her relationship with Simba.

"First of all, Simba is not cheating with you. Not with Tama nor Kula. He loves you and only you. Secondly, you're killing him Nala. Right now he is torn between his love for you and his friendship with Tama and Kula. You are putting him under so much stress he feels like he is going to have to choose between either you or them. Now Please, Please, promise me that you will lay back. I don't understand why you have to be so possessive of him. Simba loves you Nala. He always has and always will. I never told you this but you two used to sleep together, play together, and be together all the time when you were a newborn. He was about a month old at the time and I was still nursing him. I always knew you too would have a strong bond, So Please, Please! Don't mess this up" Sarafina said.

Nala stood stiff as a board, not knowing what to say or do. Her trance, however, was short-lived as she soon burst into tears, running into her mother's chest crying her eyes out. Sarafina felt bad for making Nala cry but pushed those feelings aside. She knew they were beyond the point of gentle words. For if Nala messed up, there would be even more tears in the future.

After countless minutes of Nala crying, her sobs turned into hiccups. Sarafina held her daughter but made no maternal gestures towards her to soothe her nerves. Sarafina wanted Nala to learn something today.

"Mom… what where Simba and I like as cubs?" Nala asked. She didn't know about Simba when she was a newborn, and until now she thought… well, I guess she thought that a newborn Simba had just been at his hideout… as dumb as that might have sound.

"He was honestly like a brother to you. You guys were too young then to talk, but you guys could almost communicate with your eyes. Simba would keep you company while I ate and ran to the waterhole for a quick drink. At first, I believed that you two would grow up to be brother and sister… but one day that all changed…" Sarafina said in a hurt tone. "One day, you and the rest of the newborns begin to talk. I was thrilled, but Simba still didn't understand. He tried to talk with you guys, but he had trouble with his words. I… I spent to much time teaching you that I forgot about him" Sarafina said, pausing to wipe to tears away from her eyes… tears of guilt. "He… He finally said his first word a few days later but by then you guys were far ahead of him, and because of that you didn't like to play games with him. That was when you stopped seeing him as a brother and tried to avoid him as much as possible. It broke my heart to watch him suffer in silence, watching as you and the rest played and spoke using your new found grammar" Sarafina said, remember how it all started. "I tried to teach him, and it worked, but it was never enough. He then knew how to talk, but not how to play. He was always one step behind you guys…" Sarafina said, swallowing a lump in her throat before continuing. "He was a confused cub as well. He spent most of his early days looking for his mother. He looked around and saw you guys had your own mothers, but he was having trouble finding his because… well… you know. One day he gave up looking for his mother, thinking that she must have abandoned him, and started looking for a new mother. He was too scared to approach Chumvi's mother and first went to Malka's mother. He tried to get her to accept him as her own, but she already had a cub to worry about, we all did. Then he tried Tojo's, Kula's, and Tama's mothers with the same result. Then finally, he came crawling back to be, hungry and dehydrated. I accepted him with open arms, but he was too scared to be around you. He thought you were like the others, so he waited until late at night before he would suckle. Thinking his mother abandoned him and giving up the search, he spent most of his days playing by himself. He would either chase his tail or count to ten most of the time. The other mothers began to think that there was something wrong with him, that he was born… uh… slower than the rest of you, and forbade you to play with him. This was the main reason they rejected him. They thought that there was something wrong with him, and decided it best to let natural selection do its work. Then he began talking to himself, which he never stopped doing until he met you. This was when the other mothers told me that I needed to get rid of him. That he was a bad batch and didn't have what it took to survive. I refused, but eventually gave in as the others cubs started to associate him with you, and I couldn't let you be hurt because of my past mistakes. So I made another mistake that day... I put him here one day and told him to come back every night for food. At first, he was confused and tried to follow me back, but I needed him to stay back. It killed me to do this. Keep him in isolation, but it was the only solution. I had little hope that he would survive. With no mother to teach him how the world worked, I feared that he would fall victim to nature quite easily. I visited him at noon every day to make sure he was ok, but as the days went on he only seemed worse and worse. Physically he was fine, but us lions are social cats, and being in isolation was doing a number on his young mind. I prayed that you might see him as a brother once again… but you never did…" Sarafina finished, finally revealing the sad story of Simba's early cub days.

Sarafina could feel Nala shaking in her arms, most likely crying again. Now she regretted telling Nala. She knew that it would have been too much for her to handle, yet she told her anyway.

"I'm a terrible person…" Nala said. "I don't deserve to live…" She said bursting into tears once more. "I could I have prevented it… I could have stopped it all before it even started…" Nala said feeling like she had been punched in the gut.

"It wasn't your fault… It was mine. I spent to much time teaching you new words, that I somehow forgot to teach Simba. If I had put you side by side together then none of this would have ever happened. But Nala, what's done is done. Simba was too young to remember any of that, so it was almost like it never happened. You have Simba now. So don't lose him" Sarafina said deepening the hug.

"I can't believe I did that to him…" Nala said. She knew she was young, but still, how could she have been so cruel at the age to force Simba away like that.

"Whether you believe him or not, It's all in the past" Sarafina said breaking the hug and taking a few steps back.

"Nala. I want you to understand that if none of this had ever happened, then you wouldn't be dating him. If things went normally, then he would be your stepbrother, and the option of dating would be discarded" Sarafina said, trying to make Nala feel a little less guilty.

"Mom… How did Simba find out about his mother…" Nala asked. Sarafina winced upon hearing this. The day Simba found out about his mother was one of the darkest days in Sarafinas life. Sarafina took a moment to prepare her self to tell Nala something that would be unsettling to both of them. Then the memory started to flood back, and Sarafina started to recite what happened…

 ** _(Flashback)_** **(Ok, so, Simba is still young and has trouble with his words, So when he so instead of saying 'L', he makes a 'w' sound. Same thing that applies with his R's. He isn't that hard to understand, and you probably won't need this. This is just to help you understand him a little better)**

 _A very young Simba was looking around Pride Rock for someone to play with. He looked over at the cubs and saw they were all playing together, plus they never wanted to play with him. The mothers were tired and were resting, so they wouldn't pay any attention to him, but there was this strange Lion who was really big and had a lot of red fur around his neck and chest… his father._

 _Simba trotted over happily towards his father, thinking that his own father would surely want to play with him. Simba trotted up towards Mufasa's sleeping figure and stared down at him excitedly. He had never met his father before, so this was almost like a whole new experience._

 _"_ D-d _-dad-ey" Simba tried to say, and finally manage to say the word he was looking for. Mufasa opened his eyes to see his son smiling happily at him. Mufasa sighed in annoyance. It had only been about two months since Sarabi's death and he still hadn't moved past it, and his murderous son wasn't helping at all._

 _"D-dad-ey! Pway wit me!" Simba said as he jumped up and down excited that he got his fathers attention. Mufasa gave him a stern glare, telling the young cub to back off, yet Simba was too young to understand._

 _"_ No _" Mufasa said as he rolled over trying to ignore Simba. Simba ran around him and tried again._

 _"_ Pwease _. I… got no f-f-friend. A-a-and… I w-want to_ pway weally badwy _" Simba said jumping up and down again. Mufasa was done with Simba right now, so he was going to tell him off in a very cruel way._

 _"Simba. There is a reason for that. You are a mistake. You should have never been born" Mufasa said. Simba's happiness came crashing down, and he gave his father a hurt look._

 _"W-wat do u m-_ m-e _-_ ean _daddy" Simba struggled to say._

 _"I mean that I don't love you nor want you. Now leave, and never come back" Mufasa said harshly pushing Simba away._

 _Simba fell back, and tried to catch himself, but started to stumble back further and further until he fell down the hill leading up to Pride Rock._

 _Simba twisted his legs badly, nearly breaking it, and was unable to walk, let alone get back up. He let out a serious of cub cries calling for help… but no one ever came…_

 _Minutes turned to hours as Simba laid at the bottom of Pride Rock to injured to even stand up. He had been crying out for hours now, yet still, no one had come. He was starting to get hungry, but he was severely dehydrated from being in the sun all day._

 _Sarafina was out hunting, unaware of the situation going on. After hours of being stuck at the bottom of Pride Rock, Simba finally gave in to the fact that no one would come and rescue him. He struggled to get on his feet, the pain in his leg almost unbearable._

 _Simba tried to walk up the hill that led to Pride Rock, but it was too steep for him to climb even on a good leg. Simba was now so dehydrated that he had no idea what direction he was heading, he was just walking in some random direction, hoping that he would run into help along the way._

 _Sarafina was walking back from an unsuccessful hunt, when she saw a beat up, dehydrated, and scared Simba limping through the Savanah. He was so dehydrated that he couldn't even walk in a straight line. Sarafina quickly bolted towards him, running faster than she had ever run before. When she stopped before Simba, she picked him up by the scruff and started to run towards the nearest source of water._

 _Luckily, he wasn't too far from the waterhole, and she dropped in a shallow part and let him cool off, as well as hydrate himself. Sarafina spent a few hours trying to nurse Simba back to health, and after the scariest few hours she had ever experienced, she had finally done it._

 _She had fed him, giving him a bath, and checked his leg over. She looked down to see that Simba was in her lap, fast asleep. Sarafina watched as he stirred in his sleep, before turning over to look back up at her._

 _"W-why did Da-ddy not wanna_ pway wit _me?" Simba asked, confused by his father's actions._

 _"He is going through hard times right_ now _" Sarafina said, having a bit of trouble understanding him with all his slurring and poor articulation._

 _"Is it b-_ becawse _mommy_ le-ft _me?" Simba said. Sarafina sighed, as she knew he would be too young to understand, yet she should probably tell him anyway, he had a right to know._

 _"Your mother never left you Simba… she passed away not too long ago…"_

 _ **(End Of Flashback)**_

Simba used to have a much stronger bond with Sarafina, but it was almost like he had forgotten her… maybe he was just too young to remember…

Sarafina finished talking with that last memory, The memory of having to tell a two-month-old cub that his mother had died.

"Oh…" Nala said brushing around an old stone, before noticing the engravings on it. She looked down at it and realized that it was one of his old friends. She looked around and spotted a few more, but ever since he had met her, he seemed to have forgotten about them… just like her mother…

"Now promise me that you won't mess this up Nala. This is the last straw" Sarafina said, killing the sadness in her voice and letting her glare return to her face.

"The last straw?" Nala asked. She didn't understand what Sarafina meant by 'the last straw'.

"Yea, because you're treading on thin rock young lady, and if you keep this up I won't be the one to punish you next time" Sarafina said. Nala didn't know why, but that last part was rather unsettling to her. She would rather not know what it meant.

"Yes, mother…" Nala said. Satisfied, Sarafina stepped aside, telling Nala that she could leave. Wasting no more time she broke out in a full sprint towards Pride Rock. She needed to make sure she hadn't messed things up to much, and that she could fix this before it became a serious problem…

 **Ok, First off, I want to apologize for this taking so long. So hope Y'all enjoyed this chapter, and next chapter we'll be meeting some new lions… *hint* *hint*. So if you guys got any comments or suggestions, don't be shy and send 'em my way and I'll be sure to get back to you as soon as I can. I'm hoping to have this next chapter out in a somewhat timely manner, so with that all that said, Y'all have a good one. Mr_Toast Out!**


	11. Confessions II

**Simba's Pain Chapter 11**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back, everyone! So this chapter will be focusing on the cubs. So a lot of you are pointing out the Chumvi, Malka, and Tojo don't have a part in the story like Kula and Tama do. I'm aware of this, and I made it like that for a reason… So, I planned for chapter 11 to be the chapter where I would build their characters up a bit more, but decided to do it in this chapter. Also, not like this is a huge spoiler, but I'm also going to introduce Ariya in this chapter as well. Now as for what Mufasa has planned for Simba, that will be the topic of Chapter 12, 13, and then after that… well… who knows… Also, Mufasa's plan will have a little part in chapter 12 as well, but we'll just have to see how all that will play out. So with all that said and done, Enjoy!**

Nala made it back to the cave in record time from Simba's Hideout. She entered the cave to see that things looked to be in order. Chumvi and Kula were talking in one corner, Tama and Malka were talking in another, Tojo was sleeping by himself, and Simba was also asleep in their usual corner.

Nala walked up to him and nudged him with her muzzle slightly. Simba opened his eyes and was met by Nala's concerned glare. Simba gave her a warm smile and was relieved when she replaced her worried glare with a smile of her own.

"Hey" Simba said in a tone just above a whisper. He heard Nala mumble something back to him, which sounded like 'hey', and made room for her to lie down next to him.

Wasting no time, Nala lied down next to Simba and started to place gentle kisses along his jawline, which he didn't seem to mind. Simba could tell that Nala was slightly nervous and acting strange right now. He knew that it had something to do with the talk with her mother, and prayed that she would start to show improvement soon.

Nala left herself relax, and rested her face into his chest. The first thing she smelt was Kula… meaning that from the time her mother pulled her aside, to the time she got back, he and Kula did something together, but she didn't mind… or at least didn't make it seem like she did.

In truth, she did care a little, but she was already walking on thin rock, so she didn't want to make a big deal about it. Simba could sense that Nala was smelling his fur, taking in Kula's scent, and was happy to see that she didn't make a big deal about it.

"So soft…" Nala muttered to herself as she snuggled into Simba even deeper. For some reason, this rainy season was lasting a lot longer than other, and right now it was around sixty degrees Fahrenheit. In just a week the temperature had dropped around dropped around twenty degrees Fahrenheit, So Simbas soft, warm, and comfortable fur was practically irresistible.

"Hmm?" Simba said, not having understood Nalas inaudible jibberish.

"So soft…" Nala said a little louder, pushing her face even deeper into his mane and fur. Simba smiled lightly and brought his chin down so it was on top of her head, and wrapped his arms around her, almost like he was tucking her in.

It was only a few hours past noon, and the two young lions had no idea as to how they were going to spend the rest of their day. Nala was fine just staying snuggled up against Simba, but knew that they should probably do something more productive.

"Simba?" Nala said, lifting her head so that she could look up at him. Simba moved his chin out of the way and looked down at her.

"Yea?" Simba replied.

"What do you want to do?" Nala asked.

Simba took a moment to think about it, but couldn't come up with any answers. It was one of those things where he would say he didn't know, then ask Nala, in which she would also say she had no idea as to what they should do, and they would both be back a square one again.

"Not sure, but seeing as you're asking me I'm going to assume that you don't have any ideas either" Simba responded, with a slight sigh at the end. Nala gave him a nervous smile, telling him that he was right.

"Well, we could always just walk around the pride lands and see if there something to do" Nala proposed, it a hopeful attempt to find something to do. For some reason, the two young lions felt as if there was absolutely nothing they could do, or if there something they could do, it sounded boring and like a waste of time.

"Yea, but it isn't really a good idea to just wander around the pride lands" Simba said. Even though the pride lands was the safest area around, it was still in Africa meaning that there were a lot of animals that could harm two young lions.

"Well… we could… uh… I don't know. Everything I'm thinking of seems lik-" Nala was saying before a loud and fierce snarl erupted in the air. Simba and Nala turned around to see that during their talk, everyone had moved around and Tama had pinned Tojo to the floor, snarling at him with one of her paws pressed up to his throat creating the sound of someone being choked.

Simba quickly got up to break the two up. Everyone was standing around them not want to get between Tama and Tojo. Unlike Simba, everyone saw Tama as hostile and aggressive. Someone not to be messed with, so no one dared to try and break them up.

"I-I'm Sor… sorry" Tojo wheezed out, trying to remove her paw from his throat so that he could freely breathe again. Tama deepened her glare, making it look as if she was set on killing him. Tojo tried to push her off, but due to the fact that she was choking him, he could barely make her budge.

"Tama, stop" Simba said trotting up to her and prying her off of him. Simba was able to pry her off of him and toss her to the side but was met with much resistance. Simba quickly turned around and caught her as she tried to make her way around him and continue to choke the life out of Tojo.

"Tama stop!" Simba said glaring aggressively into her eyes, scaring her a little. Tama stopped pushing against Simba and sat down, glaring towards Tojo who was in the process of getting back up and rubbing his throat.

"Now someone tell me what's going on here" Simba said, trying to gain control of the situation.

"Well, I was minding my own business when Tojo decided to come up to Malka and I and try to start a conversation. I told him to go away, and he didn't. This happened multiple times until he finally asked me why I always had to be so moody and cranky, and you know the rest" Tama said in a dark tone, still glaring at Tojo.

"I simply asked you why you were in such a bad mood. You didn't have to attack me you stupid crazy bitch" Tojo yelled back, with anger present in his voice as well. Tama felt a whole new level of anger rush through her. She lunged at Tojo with her claws unsheathed, ready to make him pay for what he said, but Simba caught her and threw her to the ground, before pinned her with one paw, and raised the other paw above his head with his own claws unsheathed as if he was going to kill her.

Tama looked up terrified at Simba. She felt his strength slowly starting to crush her, and the look in his eyes was the exact same look he gave her the first time he pinned her like this, the only difference was that this time he had a paw raised, ready to execute her.

"Don't... Do... That... Again…" Simba said in a low voice sending, even more, fear threw Tama's body. Simba quickly followed up by using his one arm to pull her to her feet and escort her out of the cave. "We'll be back" Simba said as he passed Nala.

Nala felt like she should go after them, try to see if there was anything she could do to help, but knew that Simba could handle this one on his own.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba and Tama had walked out of Pride Rock, just outside of earshot of the others. Tama looked into Simba's eyes and saw that he looked like he was angry. The feeling Tama had just felt was almost like the first time he pinned her, only way worse, and the only thing different was that she didn't tear up.

Simba quickly turned around and brought his arm up to stop Tama. He gave her a stern glare, telling her that he was clearly mad at her. Tama sat down submissively, crouching slightly as Simba seemed to tower over her. Tama knew the look in Simba's eyes well enough to know that something bad was about to happen.

Tama kept staring into Simbas glare before he sighed and let his head drop. She watched as he lifted his head back up and gave her a concerned glare, catching her completely off guard. Tama felt guilty upon seeing his look. She knew that she was the reason why he was wearing such a concerned glare.

"You just had to do it… Didn't you…" Simba said sounding disappointed. Tama had never heard Simba sound disappointed before, and felt a heavy feeling in her gut knowing that he was disappointed at her.

"Sorry…" Tama muttered, dropped her head. It wasn't like her to act like this. Normally, she would have taught whoever crossed her a lesson and left it at that, but this was the first time someone who had the ability to stop her had been there, and this person just happened to be her best friend.

"Sorry?" Simba said sounding confused and slightly mad. Tama realized that she must have done something wrong, but didn't know what. She would have expected that apologizing would have helped, but it didn't.

"Sorry… ey?" Simba said turning around. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to" Simba said turning back around.

 _"You're scaring her"_

Simba heard someone talk and looked around to see no one but them. He then realized that this voice only belonged to one person…

 _"I know"_ Simba called back.

 _"I suggest that you try something else"_ Sarabi called back.

"So why did you attack Tojo" Simba said in a soothing voice, surprising her once again. Right now Tama was unable to tell if he was angry, worried, or disappointed. It kind of seemed like was all of those.

"He… I wanted to be left alone, but he wouldn't leave me alone so I told him off, but then he started to ask questions and knowing Tojo he wasn't going to stop, so I guess I just attack him…" Tama muttered, hearing how bad her actions sounded as she said them out loud.

Tama heard Simba sigh. She looked up to see that he was no longer looking at her, and looked to be in deep thought.

"That isn't a reason to attack him, Tama. Just because he annoyed you doesn't give you the right to choke him" Simba said, resuming eye contact. Tama knew that she was in the wrong, and felt guilty for it, but still felt like that was her only option.

"Well, what could I have done" Tama asked. Fighting had been her solution for her entire life. Every time someone made her mad, or something didn't go her way, she would just fight someone to solve the issue.

"Walked away" Simba said with a blank face. "Look, I didn't drag you out here to give you a speech on how to act, so I'm heading back. Apologize to him and we'll leave it at that. Please try and control your anger next time" Simba said with a yawn, seeming to have completely dropped the subject they had just been talking about.

Tama watched as Simba climbed the hill back to Pride Rock. Tama sighed, knowing that she had messed up, before returning back to Pride Rock herself.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Malka was waiting just inside the den for Simba to return. He had observed that Tama had changed a lot in the past month or so, and was starting to wonder if there was something that was bothering her that he could maybe help her with. Malka gave Tama a smile as she walked back into the den, but she continued to keep on a stoic face, not returning the smile. Malka saw that she was walking towards him, but wasn't on a path where she would intersect him. He looked towards where she was walking and saw that she was approaching Tojo, who was still nursing his throat.

Malka moved a few steps over so that he stood in her path. Tama saw what Malka did and sighed. All she was trying to do was apologize to Tojo, but everyone assumed that she was going back for round two. The problem was that Tama was known to be a fighter, and never apologize unless it was something serious, and this wasn't.

"I'm trying to apologize to him" Tama said moving around Malka, be he took a step in the same directions and blocked her again. Even thought Malka and Tama were sorta like a couple, he still didn't know the side of Tama that Simba knew. The side he knew was aggressive and didn't apologize to people almost at all, or if she did, she didn't really mean it.

"Come on, let's be honest. You're not going over there to apologize to him" Malka said putting on an unamused look. Tama followed up by sweeping his arm up and twisting it so that he fell over and she could once again be on her way.

Tojo was nursing his throat when he noticed that Tama was coming back up to him. Probably to finish him off for good this time. He knew that he had no chance of outrunning her, so he waited for to get to him, hoping that if she attacks him again, Simba would be able to push her off like he did the first time.

"I came… I came to apologize" Tama said refusing to make eye contact. She already thought that it was humiliating that she was doing this, and now was starting to think why she even was apologizing in the first place, seeing as no one was forcing her to.

"Thanks" Tojo said, giving her a smile. He knew that she probably didn't want to give to an apology, but was surprised when she gave him a small smile in return. Tama nodded her head before turning back around to check on Malka, who was already back on his feet.

Malka tried to keep Tama in check, and he did, for the most part, but sometimes he got ahead of himself and he ended up paying for it. Malka and Tama were a lot like Simba and Nala, just without all the snuggling and kissing. They relied on each other and kept each other company throughout the day.

"How's your arm?" Tama asked as she went to check on Malka who didn't seem to have a limp or anything.

"Fine" Malka said with a nervous chuckle. He always tried to be the leader of the adolescents, so though it embarrassing that a lioness was able to do this to him. Back before Chumvis… secret… got out, Malka and Chumvi used to compete who was the alpha adolescent, but ever since his secret got out, he backed down and kept a real low profile.

"Sorry about that" Tama said, apologizing for the second time in the past few minutes. Malka gave her a smile and nodded his head, showing that he accepted her apology, after all, he was the one who was dumb enough to get under her skin.

"Hey, mind if I talk to Chumvi for a bit?" Malka asked. Tama glared upon hearing the name 'Chumvi'. She still hated him for what he had done, but she allowed herself to forgive him… or at least give him a second chance….

"Sure" Tama replied. Tama was actually thinking of using the last few hours of daylight to have a talk with Simba about his plans for the future, seeing as he passed the trials and would now become king.

"Thanks" Malka said giving her one last smile while turning around and making his way towards Chumvi and Kula. He knew that Chumvi bullied Simba when they were younger so he could become king, but he was still unclear as to why he was so devoted to becoming king that he would ruin someone's life over it. Malka knew deep down inside that there just had to be another reason as to why he went to such lengths to become king.

Malka made his way towards Chumvi and Kula and stopped and few feet in front of them. "Hey" Malka said he approached the two who looked to be resting. Both Chumvi and Kula lifted their heads and looked towards Malka upon hearing his voice. "Chumvi, mind if I talk with you for a few minutes if you're not too busy?" Malka asked.

Chumvi turned towards Kula and watched as she gave him a nod saying that it was ok. "Sure…" Chumvi said shyly before getting up. After his secret spread, he turned into a whole new cub. The bold, fun, outgoing Chumvi turned into the shy, boring, and wary Chumvi.

Malka gave Kula and appreciative nod before leading Chumvi outside of Pride Rock, and then up the side to the very top of Pride Rock, which was the highest point in all of the pride lands, besides for the mountains, and also gave them some privacy.

"Hey, Chumvi" Malka said casually. Chumvi nodded kinda awkwardly, not wanted to be the one to start the conversation.

"Ok, I'm just gonna be straight forward with ya" Malka started. "I wanna talk about you and Simba and all the bullying" He finished. Chumvi closed his eyes and sighed. This was the one thing he was praying that Malka wouldn't bring up.

"I… I have no excuse…" Chumvi said, thinking that Malka was mad at him and wanted to make him pay in some way. Malka was confused at first, wondering why Chumvi had said that, until he realized that he must have thought that he was angry.

"I'm not angry, or trying to make you feel bad about it, I just wanted to know why you did it" Malka said. Malka used to be great friends with Chumvi, but it seemed like that Chumvi was no longer around, and the truth was that no matter what Chumvi did in the past, Malka missed his friendship.

"As I said before, I did it because I wanted to become king" Chumvi said sounding guilty. Malka of course already knew this and knew that Chumvi wasn't that kind of person. It would take a truly demented person to do something like he did just to become king, so there had to be some other motive.

"I know that, But I know you well enough to know that you're not the kind of person who would do something like that just to become king…" Malka said. Chumvi sighed, not because he was trying to hide something, but because he was also asking himself this question to. The truth was that Chumvi didn't entirely know why he did what he did.

"I guess… I guess it just because I wanted to be cool. We used to always compete over who was the best and I thought that If I could be king, I would win" Chumvi said sighing. Chumvi had spent a lot of time thinking about it, and that was the conclusion he had to come to.

"You were already cool" Malka said with a slight frown. "And I never meant for it to be so competitive. I was just trying to have fun" Malka added. Their little drive for power was just meant to be a competition between two friends and was never intended to be taken so seriously.

"I know… I just felt… I don't know. I was just being dumb and wasn't thinking straight" Chumvi replied. Chumvi just wanted to be cool and thought that by becoming king everyone would think he was cool and seeing as the real prince wasn't around, Chumvi thought that it wouldn't be a big deal if Simba left and he tried to claim the throne.

"I don't why you did it either, but Simba forgives you, and I do too. Part of the reason I called you up here is to understand that we don't hate you. Or, at least I don't. I just want things to return to the way they used to" Malka said. Chumvi gave him a slight smile. It was reassuring to hear that Malka forgave him, but he still felt like he wasn't welcome.

"Thanks, and I'll try" Chumvi said. Malka wanted to keep asking questions on this topic, but new that Chumvi would just have to work it out over time. Malka didn't know what it was like to be Chumvi, or what he was going through, so he would just have to be patient and let Chumvi slowly recover.

Malka nodded his head before walking past Chumvi and back down to Pride Rock. Chumvi sighed when Malka was out of earshot. He was happy that Malka still saw him as a friend, but Nala and Tama still hated him, and that's what was keeping him down.

He had no idea how to win them back and didn't know if he ever could win them back. After a moment of thinking, Chumvi got up and made his way back down to Pride Rock as well, planning on how he was going to change so things could be as they once were.

 **(Meanwhile)**

After Malka left to go talk to Chumvi, Tama started to walk towards Simba and Nala. Tama had a good idea that Nala wasn't going to like the idea of her borrowing Simba, but hopefully allowing her to tag along would make her tolerate it. Tama had no idea as to why Nala was so possessive of Simba. Tama didn't mind what Malka did, but then again, Simba and Nala were closer that She and Malka would ever be.

"Hey" Tama said as she stopped before Simba and Nala, who were still trying to decide on something to do. Simba and Nala looked up towards Tama upon hearing her voice, wondering if she would be the one to save them from this temporary state of boredom.

"Hey, Tama" Simba said. Nala nodded at Tama and Tama nodded back. Tama knew that Nala was probably wondering what she wanted, and was hoping that she would allow her to talk to Simba.

"Can we take a walk and talk about something Simba? You can to Nala if you want" Tama said trying her best to sound calm and level. Upon hearing this, Simba had a good idea that Nala would have some kind of objection to this, but was surprised when she said 'sure'. Tama was slightly tired but didn't think anything of it, as she planned to be back inside of an hour...

Tama gave Nala a smile and took a few steps back as the two got up. Tama turned around and started to make her way out of the den with Simba and Nala in tow. The three lions made their way down the hill that led up to Pride Rock and took a random trail and began walking down it. They had been walking for a long time in silence before Simba finally broke the silence and started the conversation.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Simba said as he increased his pace so that caught up to Tama. The only time Tama and Simba really ever talked was when one of them had a problem. They hadn't really just talked before without there being some problem.

"I just wanted to know what your plans for the future were. You passed the trials and what not but I'm wondering what your next steps to becoming king are?" Tama asked, hoping that he had some idea as to what would be next.

Simba took a moment to decide how he was going to tell her this. He wasn't trying and hide the truth, but the thing was that he was far from being done with his father and he didn't make her worry.

"Well… ok, so I know that I've completed the trials, but I know my father has something else planned. I don't have a way to definitively prove it, but I know my father well enough to know he has something else planned" Simba said, knowing that he would probably cause Tama to go on some rant.

"What! He can't do that! You passed all three trials so that means he can't do that, and even if he tries to we can stop him with some law or something" Tama said getting worked up. Simba knew that she would do that, and there really wasn't anything he could say to calm her down.

"Well, if he does there's not much we could probably do. He is the king…" Simba said. Tama hated when Simba said things like that. Instead of hoping and praying for a miracle, he was that one guy who listed everyone the statistics, showing them just how much they are screwed.

"Whatever. So what are you going to do in the future?" Tama asked, unsure if he had any plans for moving forward. Someone was going to have to teach him how to be a king and she could already rule out Mufasa.

"I don't know. Probably just do what I used to do" Simba said. Simba had never had both friends and free time before, so now that he had both, he had no idea as to what he was going to do with them.

"Being…" Tama asked having no clue as to what he used to so in his free time.

"Wander around the pride lands" Simba said. Tama gave him a confused look. Clearly, she had misunderstood him, because a cub would really have to have been a giant loser if all he had to do was wander around the pride lands...

"But that's not fun. Come on, I'll show you fun" Tama said a she got into pouncing position.

"Maybe later" Simba said with a smile. The truth was that for some reason he was tired and beat, and only wanted to take it easy or rest for the remainder of the day.

"Come on Simba" Nala chimed in, surprising both of them. Usually, all Nala ever did was support Simba when he was tired or upset, so what seemed like the first time in… ever… she was actually going against him and pushing him slightly.

"You ok Nala? You're acting… different than normal…" Tama said, surprised by her behavior. It seemed like she was talking to a whole new Nala.

"What do you mean?" Nala said laughing, earning an even more confused glance.

"Ok, I'm just gonna say it. Why aren't you acting jealous, or like… like Nala. You used to be so fun, but then got jealous, and now your back to being your old self. Don't get me wrong, I like this, but I'm just confused because it seemed like just this mourning you didn't trust me to be alone with him" Tama said, motioning towards Simba at the end.

Nala dropped her smile and replaced it with a slight frown. "I… I wanted to talk to you about that…" Nala said sound serious. Tama was now focused solely on Nala, she had been wondering about her behavior as of recently, and Nala might just be about ready to tell her. "At first I thought I was jealous… But as of recently… well… like an hour ago, I realized that I was guilty" Nala said, earning a confused look from both of them. "Look… when I was younger I partook in the joke making and laughing, and I still feel guilty about that. So from that guilt, I tried to protect him from you guys" Nala said.

Tama listens in fascination, but one thing was wrong. Nala only ever tried to chase away Tama and Kula, not the males… so was it real guilt… or just a cover-up.

"But why only kula and I?" Tama asked. Simba nodded upon hearing this. He was beyond thrilled that Nala might be changing, but it was a bit odd that she only chased the females away…

"Because you two are the only ones who spend time with him. I don't know if you've noticed, but Simba never spends time with Malka, Chumvi, or Tojo" Nala said. Tama thought about it and realized that Nala was right. It all started to make sense! She felt guilty and was just trying to protect Simba.

"Oh… you know what! Tomorrow, we should all get together and mess around in the pride lands" Tama said. It probably would be best for everyone if Simba spent more time with the males, seeing as he would most likely have to work with them one day if they weren't sent away by Mufasa.

"Sure" Nala said with a smile. Simba nodded along as well but was still too caught up in his thoughts to say anything. Nala just seemed jealous, not guilty, and those two emotions were the opposite of each other.

"Nala…" Simba said in a hurt voice, snapping both the females out of there happy trances and made them worry a bit.

"Yea?" Nala said, taking a few steps toward Simba.

"Tell me, and be honest. Are you, or are you not jealous of me being around Tama or Kula. You seemed so jealous… I can't… I can't believe that it was guilt all this time… it just seems… Impossible…" Simba said. He wanted to believe Nala and think that she was just guilty for her part in his past, but it just didn't make sense.

"I'm not" Nala said with a serious face. "Look, I know I used to sound jealous… but the truth was that I thought I was the only one capable of protecting you. When she slept with you that first time, I was mad because… Ok well that was the only time I was jealous, but I got over that pretty quickly" Nala said with a nervous chuckle, and Tama and Simba chuckled back. "But all the other times I feared that they would hurt you, and I thought that If I prevented you from being with them… I could prevent any further pain… but I only created more…" Nala said sound guilty. "I just thought that if there was no one around you, there would never be anyone to hurt you..." Nala finished.

"What about that lesson Kula gave me before the hyenas…" Simba said... "I heard you by the way… when you told her not to make any moves on me…" Simba said, starting to think that she may have been lying this entire time.

"I know this sounds like a load of crap… but… ok, I'll understand if you don't believe me on this one, but when I said 'Just don't make any moves on Simba', I meant for her not to try and change you… because… I kind of like how you were back then. You were really shy and cute" Nala said with a nervous chuckle.

"She's right Simba… you kinda were cute" Tama said nudging him with her elbow.

"But that doesn't make any sense. You made it sound like you were talking about her flirting with me…" Simba said

"She didn't let me finish before she cut me off by shushing me. I was going to say 'Thanks, It's just that-'s not what I meant, I mean don't try and turn him into someone he's not'..." Nala said with a nervous chuckle. This was the truth, but right knows the truth sounded like bull crap.

"But she said you were glaring at her…" Simba said. "I do believe you, but some parts aren't adding up and I'm just trying to get the big picture" Simba added.

"I was mad, and I talked to her about it. I might have been a bit jealous or just mad, but she was acting as if she knew you and like you were best friends… and I didn't like how she was acting. You looked scared and nervous, and I love Kula to death but sometimes she just misses those cues… She was being way too upfront with you and trying to turn you into a new lion in a day" Nala said dropping her head a little.

"It's true Simba… Sometimes she does miss those cues" Tama said, stepping into vouch for Nala.

"But what about all those times you were like 'Now that Kula and Tama are gone, I get my turn to nuzzle you'" Simba asked, wondering why she would have said that if she wasn't jealous. He wasn't mad or against her right now, he was only confused and wanted clear answers.

"Because I love you and wanted some time with my favorite lion in the world. And when I said Tama had a foul scent, I know for sure that Tama works Kula and my scent out of Malka each night" Nala said turning towards Tama, and Tama gave both Simba and Tama a nervous smile, because it was true. "And the time I wanted to take you to Rafiki to get your paw looked at, I was a little jealous, but only because I had been worrying about you, and… I wanted Malka, Tojo, and Chumvi to go with you because… Yea, I was jealous… The day I got mad at you for ignoring me when you were running around the pride lands, I was just mad and being dumb… That time I hit… I hit my little brother I was mad and I did apologize about that. So the only times I ever got jealous, or like seriously jealous was when She slept with you, and Kula and Tama got to take you to Rafiki's" Nala said listing out all the time she remembers getting mad or jealous, or any other times she could think of that would look suspicious.

Simba stood there, looking at her as if she was a completely new lioness. Simba let a smile come to his face and watched as one made its way towards her face.

"I can't believe this" Simba said in a happy voice but stopped when he saw that Nala hung her head low. "No, I mean like I do believe you, it's just that I'm so happy right now. All this time I thought you were being possessive over me, and that one day it would cause some conflict and damage all of us… But this… This changes everything!" Simba said, truly happy for the first time in a long time and flung himself towards Nala, wrapping her into a hug as they fell over.

Nala was surprised by Simba's sudden actions, and it took her a few seconds to realize what was going on. Nala hugged Simba back, before pushing him off of her to get back up. "Easy there" Nala said with a chuckle, before turning around and helping him back up. Normally she would return his playful gesture, as not even five minutes ago she was trying to encourage it, but all of a sudden she was feeling tired and ready to turn in for the day.

"Sorry, just got excited" Simba said as he got back up, thinking over and over again about how all this time she wasn't really jealous. Well… at times she was, but for the most part, she was just guilty.

"Well, I'm going to turn in for the night, even though it isn't even sunset" Nala said. It had been a stressful week for Nala, but things started to look up. Without another word Nala started to head back to Pride Rock to get some early sleep.

"That was… interesting…" Tama said, quietly watching the two from the side. Simba was slightly startled by this and looked over to see that Tama was walking up to him, and then sat down next to him. Simba had forgotten that Tama was sitting there, due to the fact that he was in the middle of having a huge weight relieved for his shoulders.

"What was?" Simba asked, wondering if she was talking about Nala's confession, or him getting excited and tackling Nala.

"Nala telling us that she wasn't jealous all this time, and being able to prove it…" Tama said, sounding like she was in disbelief. Simba had to agree with her. There was no denying that she wasn't jealous at times, but to be told that it was mostly from guilt almost seemed impossible.

"Yea… All this time I was thinking that she thought you would try and take me away from her" Simba said, and looked over to see that Tama was giving him a surprised look. "What?" Simba said, not knowing why she was giving him such a surprised look.

"Nothing… it's just that I thought with me being with Malka that would kinda… eliminate me, ya know?" Tama said not understanding why Simba thought that.

"Well… I don't know how to say this…" Simba said scratching his head. He knew what he wanted to say, but was having trouble on how to word it. "Lionesses have this thing with each other. Almost like… Uhh… Well, basically Nala is always trying to prove to me that she's the girl for me, and always giving me more reasons why we're meant to be together" Simba said, not having a clue as to how females worked.

Upon hearing this Tama chuckled a bit. "She's just giving you more reasons to love her. If Nala stayed the same and never changed, she would get boring after a while" Tama said. Simba thought about what Tama said, and concluded that it kinda made sense, but he wasn't going to fry himself over trying to figure out females… something that was impossible… So decided to ask the female next to him.

"So she was fearing that I would get bored and leave her?" Simba asked. Tama sighed, realizing that Simba wasn't understanding anything she was saying right now and was going to have to lecture him on how females worked.

"Well… yes and no. So basically what's happening is that she is always trying to impress you and get you to notice her. Everyone does this, both male and females. So what's happening is that if you get bored of her, you'll start to peel away from her and set your sights on someone else" Tama replied, hoping that he would get the point.

"But I would never leave her" Simba said. Tama was now starting to get slightly irritated. She was putting this in as simplest terms as it could possibly be put in, yet he was still failing to understand.

"Yes, but she doesn't know that. Look it's just something we lionesses do, and you don't have to understand it. Ok?" Tama said in a somewhat hostile tone. Tama might make an exception with Simba, and let most of her feelings show, but even sometimes Simba would starting picking at her bad side, and it also didn't help that she was beginning to feel tired.

"Sorry" Simba muttered looking away towards the right.

Tama mentally cursed herself. Tama didn't understand why, but Simba had this way of almost controlling her emotions, and what messed with her, even more, was that he didn't even know he possed this ability. Tama now felt guilty that she made Simba feel bad. Normally, she just wouldn't care if she hurt someone else's feelings like this. It would have been their fault for irritating her, and all she did was raise her voice, nothing too serious. But she felt a lot of sympathy for Simba and didn't like to see him look hurt.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten irritated" Tama said. On the plus side, ever since she had met Simba, her attitude had improved greatly and she was no longer as hostile and aggressive. Part of the problem was that she never had anyone she could let her feelings out in front of before, so all that emotion built up into one place was an explosion waiting to happen, so now that she had a person she could trust and had a way to release her emotions from time to time, she was a lot less hostile.

"You've changed" Simba said looking back left towards Tama. Tama knew they had all changed a lot since they've met Simba, yet she had probably changed the least… so she thought.

"How so?" Tama asked, starting to feel even more tired and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Well… When I first met you I thought that you were a bad person. Not like evil or anything, but one of those kinds of people that just didn't care about people by the way the talked and acted, If that makes sense. But now I realize that you care a lot, and not only about me, but you're starting to care a lot about other people" Simba said.

Tama yawned loudly and took a moment to think about what he had said. She guessed that he was right, but she didn't really remember a lot on how she used to act compared to now. "Who knows" Tama said closing her eyes, struggling to stay awake, too tired to think anymore.

"Want to head back and get some sleep?" Simba asked. All he felt was her nodding on his shoulder similar to as if it was light nuzzle. There was only one problem. They had walked for a long time and were a good ways away from Pride Rock, and Tama was already about to fall asleep.

It was starting to drop to around forty degrees now that the sun was about to set. Some of the oldest animals in the pride lands would tell stories of were a rare natural phenomenon would occur, causing the temperature to drop so low to where water would freeze. Seeing as they lived in Africa, this almost never occurred, but anything with a chance greater than zero percent was bound to happen.

Walking back to Pride Rock would take around thirty minutes. His hideout was about half that distance, but it was far too cold and they would want to stay in a cave where it would be warmer, and the cave they used during the storms was on the other side of the pride lands, so that would take over an hour to reach by walking, and Simba knew that Tama would be far too tired to run.

Upon thinking about Tama, Simba looked back down at his shoulder to see that she had already fallen asleep leaned up against his shoulder. "Tama…" Simba said gently, shaking his shoulder slightly as to wake her up, but not startle her. "Tama…" Simba said a little louder but got no response. "Great…" Simba said. Half of him wanted to wake her up, but Simba wasn't that kind of person. He was almost too nice to the point where he would screw himself over just to make other people happy.

Simba lied down gently, making sure that Tama didn't slide off his shoulder, and let her fall on top of him. Simba slowly managed to get her right arm and leg to fall over his other side, and gently began to stand back up, carrying her on his back with her legs draped over his body, exactly how he carried Kula when she was tired during the storm.

Now came the hard part… Simba began his 'thirty' minute walk back to Pride Rock, but he soon realized that it would take him over an hour. It wasn't that Tama was too heavy or anything, it's just that he didn't want to wake her up, so he decided to walk extra slow and smooth. Simba knew that Sarafina was probably out looking for them, seeing as it was now after sunset and beginning to get dark out… assuming she hadn't already been watching them before.

Simba had been carrying Tama on his back without waking her up for around ten minutes now when he heard rustling in the bush around fifteen yards away from him. "Aunty?" Simba asked, wondering if that had been Sarafina. Simba watched as the bush remained completely still. The grass and plants around it were moving in the wind, but the bush wasn't…

Simba knew that someone… or something… was in that bush, causing it to stand still in the wind, and continued on, but now on high alert. Simba heard some more… unusual sounds, and could tell that something as following him.

Simba understood that they look like an easy target. Two cubs far away from Pride Rock, both looked tired, after sunset, so nice and dark to where people could slip by, and his stalkers could also think that Tama may be injured due to the way he is carrying her. Simba knew that Tama and Nala wanted to have a fun day tomorrow, but he was starting to fear that that would soon no longer be an option.

Simba saw that the path in front of him was straight and clear so closed his eyes and focused his hearing…

"Are you sure about this? What if he's on to us?"

"Don't be stupid, he's just a cub. Plus the one on his back looks half dead anyway. There's no way he knows we're here"

"That's a big cub… think it's red mane?"

"Who?"

"Red mane. The lion that took out five of our best hyenas, and sent the boss and that other guy running for the hills. They say he's new around here."

"Pfff he's just a myth. Those fur brains probably just ran into a buffalo or something"

"I don't think so. They say it was a lion all right. Eight hundred pounds and six feet tall"

"You ever heard of an eight hundred pound lion that's six feet tall?"

"No"

"Exactly, Because they don't exist. Plus this is just a kid. Even if 'red mane' exists, he's nowhere to be found"

"Will you two shut up"

"Sorry Jasen"

"Jasen is right, stuff it you two"

"Sorry"

"Now how should we do this?"

"Jason and I will flank him from the right, you two flank him from the left. Won't even know what hit him"

"Ok, let's go"

Simba opened his eyes back up. He knew those voices belonged to hyenas, and that they wanted to attack Tama and him. Simba watched from his peripheral vision and something went from the corner of his left eye, out of his vision behind him, and then back into his right before entering the bush.

"Telling you guys now, you got the wrong two lions!" Simba shouting to them, waking up Tama in the process.

"Hmm… what?" Tama said waking up, then shot up realizing that Simba was carrying her since she had fallen asleep. Simba let Tama roll off his back and helped stabilize.

"Were about to be ambushed by at least four hyenas" Simba shouted again, telling the hyenas that he could hear them, and that he knew they were following him. Tama was now fully awake once again and got into a defensive stance. She was looking around for any sign that something was around them, but it was completely silent and nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Well well well… a lion cub who strayed too far from the pride..." A hyena said as he came out of the bush next in front of them. Simba saw another hyena come out from the bush beside him and heard the other two exit the bush behind him.

"You should have seen the last guy who said that to him," Tama said with a chuckle, recalling that those were the exact same words the leader of the last pack used before he got annihilated by Simba.

"Shut up!" The hyena said, expecting that the two lions would jump back in fear as he tried to use the most intimidating voice he had but was angered when he saw that they looked at him like he was nothing. "Ain't you scared of me cubs!?"

"First, Shut up. Your voice is annoying. Secondly, No. I'm not going to be scared of something that I'm faster than, stronger than, smarter than, and bigger than" Simba said, trying his best to make the hyena mad.

The hyena snarled loudly and marched up to Simba. "Last warning kid, shut it…" He said in a low voice, in another attempt to scare Simba.

"Make me" Simba smirked. Tama watched as Simba seemed to be acting differently. Tama knew the despite Simbas strength, and ability to fight, he was a very passive person, so it was almost like a whole new Simba was showing.

"That's it. You asked for it!" The hyenas said as he raised his paw and formed a fist, hurling it towards Simba. Simba quickly caught his paw and held on with a firm grip, not applying any extra force. The hyena quickly followed up by striking him in the head but had no effect on him at all.

The hyena tried to rip his paw away from Simba's grasp and back to his own body but found it to be like he was trying to pull his paw out from under a two-ton rock. "Let go right now or so help me I'll-" "Enough" Simba said, crushing the hyena's paw with his grip. The sounds the followed next were bones crackling, and screams of pain…

Simba only cracked the bones in his paw, not having the forearm strength to break his paw completely just with his grasp, but gave him a nasty fracture nonetheless.

"Right now you're in the pride lands… my home. Which means I could beat the shit out of you and legally get away it" Simba said getting up into his face. "So I'm going to give you this chance now, while your paw in still attached to your body, to walk away" Simba said now crushing down on the hyena's paw with all his force.

"Ahhh… Y-yea r-right away" The hyena said between painful breaths. Simba tossed the hyena towards the two behind him and caught a glimpse of there facial expressions before impact, and knew that he was going to be successful in scaring them off.

The two hyenas quickly took off, with the other doing a half limp, half run behind them, leaving their companion behind.

Simba turned back around and saw that the one hyena was still standing at there, and decided it was time he went too.

"Name's Simba. Not Red Mane. Now get" Simba said, and watched at the hyena bolted off in the direction of his companions, and would probably be the last time he thought of returning to the pride lands for a while. Simba had concluded that 'Red Mane' was what the hyenas who he encountered before had nicknamed him, and had just greatly over exaggerated him.

Tama stared at Simba in udder disbelief as he had been able to handle that situation entirely by himself, and just like the first time he set them running for the hills. Simba turned around and met Tama's gaze. "Come on" Simba said as he turned back around and started to head back to Pride Rock.

Tama wanted to ask him a bunch of questions as to how he was able to do all of that and how he did that wrist/paw thing, yet knew that he would most likely not want to talk about it right now.

It wasn't long before Tama felt the adrenaline start to leave her body, and began to feel tired again. She was tired during the whole ordeal, yet the situation called for her body to muster some quick energy.

Simba noticed that Tama was starting to fall behind, and saw that she was walking with her close, and looked like she was barely able to keep her self up off the ground. "Want me to carry you?" Simba offered, seeing how tired his friend was.

"No… I'm… Fine" Tama said in between yawns, not wanting Simba to carry her. Tama knew that Simba was trying to be helpful, but felt bad knowing that Simba was going to have to waste his time and energy on her.

Tama felt herself walking into something, and before she knew it she was back on top of Simba's back with her legs draped over the side, just like she had been before. Tama opened her eyes barely to see that despite her request, Simba was now carrying her once again. Tama would have normally protested, but she was far too tired and let herself fall asleep within a matter of seconds.

Simba had his sights set on Pride Rock, and upon getting closer, he saw two figures sitting at the tip. One was a full-grown lioness, and it looked like a slightly younger and similar lioness was projected next to her. It didn't take Simba long to realize that it was just Nala and her mother waiting for them to return. Simba looked up at the sky and saw the stars had shifted a lot since sunset, and knew they had stayed out at least an hour by now.

Simba continued walking with Tama on his back, just starting to feel his legs grow tired. Simba knew that all his hard work and training were paying off right now and that the would not have been able to carry Tama like this if he hadn't decided to began intensely working out at a younger age. Simba looked back up and saw that it was just a few more minutes, and he would soon be reunited with the most beautiful lioness in the world, and her angry mother.

Simba could barely see Sarafina's expression but could make out it was anything but a smile. He knew that she was going to be mad for him staying out so late. Nighttime was a dangerous time of the day for young animals to stay out, and running into those four hyenas was just more proof.

After a few more minutes, Simba was now walking up the hill the lead up to Pride Rock, and onto the stone that protruded out into the Pride Lands. Sarafina and Nala made their way down from the tip of Pride Rock and greeted Simba, and check on Tama and were relieved to see she was only sleeping.

Sarafina gave Simba the stink eye but dropped it seeing as he had returned with Tama safely. Normally, Sarafina would be mad at the cubs if anyone one of them stayed out like this, but she made a slight exception for Simba. She was confident in Simba's ability to protect the others, as well as keeping them alive for an extended period of time. His second trial was proof enough for this.

Simba entered the cave and looked around trying to find Malka so that he could drop Tama off and get some sleep himself. He knew that Tama and Nala wanted to do something involving everyone tomorrow, so he wanted to get as much sleep as possible for that.

He finally found him, but there was one problem. Chumvi, Malka, Tojo, and Kula had formed a giant pile in the far right corner of the den as to save precious heat. In was now cold enough to see your own breath as it had been night for over an hour now, and they were just trying to save as much heat as possible.

Simba didn't want to just drop Tama off and wake everybody up like a jerk, so started to brainstorm how he was going to get to Malka, who of course, had to be at the bottom of the pile…

"Simba? Everything alright?" Nala whispered as she walked up to him and nuzzle into his check and the crook of his neck, seeing that he was in deep thought and had just stopped all of a sudden.

"Huh… Oh, Yea. Just thinking about what we should do with Tama" Simba whispered back. Nala looked towards the pile and just thought it would be simple enough to lie her down there, but then realized that that would wake them up, and then leave her with four moody lions.

"Come on, she can stay with us" Nala said, placing a kiss on his jawline before making his way towards there usually corner in the far left. Sarafina walked up beside Simba and gave him a confused glance, in which Simba returned.

Sarafina gave Nala her serious talk today, and it seemed like she had already changed and seemed completely fine by now. Tama muttered some inaudible in her sleep bringing both Simba and Sarafina back to looking at each other.

"Hopefully it lasts" Simba whispered with a smile. Sarafina gave him a dull smile in return, before turning around and going back to wrap her youngest, Mheetu, into a hug to keep him warm throughout the night.

Simba walked over to where Nala was, and gently set Tama on the ground, but accidentally woke her up. Tama opened her eyes to see Simba giving her an apologetic smile, and was about to return to sleep when she saw that the left side of his forehead and temple were covered in blood.

"Simba you're bleeding" Tama said, getting up and checking his head over. Nala heard something about blood and began to investigate too, and saw that Simba had a tiny cut on his forehead that had already clotted and look to be a few minutes old.

"How did this happen?" Nala asked as she ran her paw over it before she guided his head down with her paw and began to start licking his wound to clean it. Simba looked up at Tama, wanting to know if he should tell her about the encounter with the hyenas and saw that she started to nod, telling him it was best if he told the truth on this one.

"Hyenas" Simba said. SImba realized that the strike the Hyena delivered to his skull didn't do that much damage to him at that moment, but still left its mark.

Nala finished cleaning his cut, and then gave him a very emotional look in the eyes. Nala hated that Simba was always hurting himself, or getting into danger. It seemed like every day he would come back to the den at night with one more battle scar than when he left, and Nala was beginning to get fed up with it.

Nala was tired and had been waiting for over an hour for them to get back, so she was ready for bed and done with arguing.

"We'll talk in the mourning" Nala said, giving him a small peck on the lips before lying down. Simba followed her lead and lied down next to her, before wrapping her into a hug. Nala turned around so that she could rest her face in his chest, mane, and neck. Over the time Nala has spent nuzzling and sleeping with Simba, she had concluded that his chest, mane, and neck were the softest places, and couldn't wait to know how his mane would be when it was full grown. So big… so lush… and soft…

Tama lied down behind Simba and pressed up against his back, however, most of her body was still exposed and she began to shiver slightly.

"Lay on top of me" Simba whispered when he began to fell Tama shiver. Tama took his advice and began to plan out how she was going to do this. Simba was lying on his right side, and Nala was a few inches to his left in some spots. Tama carefully laid down on top of him and placed her legs between Nala and his body making sure she didn't kick anyone.

Tama rested the side of her face and the side of his neck where his mane was beginning to grow in and found it to be unbelievable soft. Tama felt so comfortable during that moment, and wished she could do this more often, but knew that it would be weird if she stayed with him almost every night.

Tama closed her eyes after feeling the urge to sleep return, and it wasn't a few seconds later until she was finally able to go to sleep for good this time…

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba woke up with a slow start the next morning. He attempted to lift his head up so he could look outside of the cave and tell what time it was but felt something weighing him down. He was able to see out of the corner of his eye that Tama was using his neck as a pillow and that he was going to have to lie around until she woke up.

 _"You're awfully selfless… You know"_

Simba had closed his eyes, but upon hearing a voice he reopened them and then realized that it was only his mother.

 _"What do you mean by that?"_ Simba said back, wondering what Sarabi meant when she said he was awfully selfless.

 _"You could wake them up. Use your superior strength and size to force them to move, but you don't… You wait patiently for them to wake up"_ Sarabi called back.

 _"I could, but then again I could just wait for them to wake up and everyone would remain happy"_ Simba replied, not wanting to have to talk about him being stronger or faster and all that other crap.

 _"Suit yourself…"_ Sarabi said back.

Simba waited… and waited… and waited… until it had been some time and he didn't hear anything back.

 _"Mom?"_ Simba called back.

 _"Yes?"_ Sarabi replied.

 _"I... I miss you. Even though I never met you"_ Simba said, sighing.

 _"I know. I miss you too. But one day, many years from now, we will reunite and have nothing to worry about"_ Sarabi said. Simba realized that she was talking about the day he would die, and transcend into the heavens. _"But until then, this is the best I can do"_ Sarbi finished.

 _"It's more than enough"_ Simba replied with a smile. Unlike Simba, Sarabi could actually see Simba right now. Simba found it a little weird to talk to her without seeing her facial expression or body, having no way to know her mood besides her tone.

Simba waited, but never heard anything back. He knew that his talk with her must have expired. Simba allowed his eyes to close as he attempted to get more shut-eye while he allowed Tama to wake up on her own.

Simba reopened his eyes, not having felt tired, and looked over to where Malka, Chumvi, and Tojo had all been previously and saw that only Kula remained, who was wide awake and staring at him. Simba raised his eyes brows once to tell her that he saw her, and Kula got up and started to make her way over to them.

"Mourning" Kula muttered, trying to find a space near Simba so she could talk to him. Kula sat in front of him and positioned herself so that she could talk to him eye to eye.

"Hey. Where's Malka, Chumvi, and Tojo?" Simba asked.

"Out doing boy stuff. Something about seeing who can lift the most weight" Kula said, rolling her eyes at how boys found the dumbest things to compete over.

"Why's that?" Simba asked, having no idea as to why they were always competing to see who was the stronger, fastest, and leanest out of the three.

"I don't know. You're a boy, tell me" Kula said back, wondering why he asked such a dumb question. Then it occurred to her. Simba didn't know what it was like to be a normal male. It's why he let Nala get away with everything and doesn't ever try to act tuff or cool.

"Well…" Kula started, thinking about why males did what they did. "Ok, Well Malka thinks he is the leader. Out of all of us. Even thought Chumvi is a little bigger than him, Malka has a decent sized ego. Chumvi… he used to be bolder… but now he isn't as bold as he used to be, but he's making progress. Tojo just wants to have his veins bulge out. Right now I guess they're just having a competition to see who is the best." Kula said, trying to decide each of the males to him.

Simba carefully shifted Tama off of him, abandoning his plan to stay with her until she woke him, and broke his protective hold of Nala and got up without waking either of them. Simba started to walk away from the two with Kula and tow and noticed that they were the only four lions in the cave.

"Wow…" Kula said randomly.

Simba looked over his shoulder to see that Kula was staring at his arm like something was wrong with it. "What?' Simba asked, checking his arm out to make sure nothing was wrong with it. Kula approached Simba and took hold of his arm.

"Flex" Kula commanded.

"What?" Simba replied, not knowing why she was asking him to flex.

"Just flex your arm Simba" Kula said. Normally, anytime she asked a male her age to flex, they just couldn't wait to show off their muscles to her, so she was just trying to work around Simba's curious and cautious mindset.

Without another word, Simba flexes his arm to the best of his ability, still wondering why she was asking him to do this and saw a completely normal arm… so he thought.

Kula stared in disbelief... Simba was the cub Malka, Chumvi, and Tojo all dreamt they could be. He had the muscle, the veins, and the small little scars every few inches. Kula started to move her paw around his arm, running it over each vein and getting a feeling of what they felt like. She moved her paw further up his arm an started feeling over his cephalic vein, biceps, triceps, and deltoids.

"Holy…" Kula muttered, catching Simba's attention.

"What?" Simba asked. Simba had never had someone take ahold of his arm and just stare at it like it was something sacred or godlike, and was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with him.

"It's just I've never seen anything like this. You're just… I-I can even begin to describe it. Every muscle, every vein, and every tendon… all visible… all there" Kula said with an amazing smile. Simba wondered why she was glorifying his muscularity and vascularity, seeing as they all had the same muscles and veins, just that he showed a lot, lot more.

"Thanks?" Simba said. Kula put his arm down, and then just sat in front of him with an unreadable face. Without any warning or gestures, Kula slammed her paw into Simba's chest as hard as she could, attempting to see if she had the strength to inflict any damage on his near-impenetrable layer of muscle.

Simba was started and begin to think that he had done something wrong for her to attack him like that, and scurried back away as to not cause any more problems. The punch hurt, but Kula had terrible form so she didn't end up punching him that hard, so it just surprised him more than hurt him.

Kula on the other hand… Kula felt like she had just punched the cave wall. "Wow… Ok" Kula said shaking her paw in the air and laughing. "Mental note, Don't punch a muscular lion" Kula said smiling towards Simba.

"What was that?" Simba asked walking up to her, now realizing that he didn't do anything wrong and that she had just punched him for fun.

"I wanted to see how strong your chest was… and judging by the pain in my paw… I'd say really strong" Kula said, taking a step forward and wrapping her arms around his neck and put her face next to his.

"Try and stand your ground" Kula said. WIthout a response, Kula pushed off the ground with all the force she had but barely made Simba budge. She repeated this a few more times with no success. She only ended up making him take a step back, and for the most part she was only successful at making him lean back.

"Holy" Kula said unwrapping her arms from his neck and taking a step back. "I think you should be our new leader" Kula said with a smile. The fact that she did more damage to herself than him when she punched him, and not being able to move him at all made her confident that he could easily become the new leader of their group.

"No thanks" Simba said. Simba didn't believe that he should become the leader just because he was strong. Kula was surprised by him turning down the offer of a leadership role, as male lions were always thirsty for power, but shrugged it off as she was talking about Simba, the weirdest lion she knew.

"Well, thanks anyway" Kula said, giving him a nuzzle as she departed to wake her friends up. Simba barely had enough time to return her nuzzle with a pathetic little nuzzle of his own.

Simba watched as she walked away and then looked out towards the pride lands. He started to walk towards the tip of Pride Rock, and the second he took a step outside he felt the freezing temperature bite his skin. Surprisingly, it was quite warm and comfortable inside Pride Rock, but just outside of the den it had to be at least thirty degrees colder.

Simba walked to the tip of Pride Rock and sat down, looking out towards the Pride Lands. It was a quiet mourning. The unusually cold weather caused all the animals to go dormant. Normally, the pride lands would be jumping with life at this time, but right now there wasn't a soul to be seen.

Simba took this time to study something that Kula said about him. He looked down at his arms to see a complex network of veins running up them, being pushed to the surface by the muscle and started to wonder if everyone was like this. He made a mental note to see if any of the other males were the same, or if he really was as god-like as everyone makes him out to be.

Simba looked back out towards the pride lands. Simba didn't like the sight of not seeing any activity at this time of day, and it made him feel a little uncomfortable. Simba looked out towards his hideout and just stared at it. He spent almost his entire life in that place, and now it seemed like he was almost never there at all.

"You ok?" A voice said from behind Simba. Simba turned around and saw that Nala was making her way towards him, probably wondering why he was standing in the near-freezing temperature.

"No" Simba replied and then looked back out towards the pride lands. For some reason, Simba didn't feel ok, and what bothered him was that he didn't even know what was wrong. He was just sitting there with a heavy feeling in his gut, not knowing how to get rid of it.

"What's wrong?" Nala asked as she sat down beside him, and rested her head on his shoulder. She knew that he probably wouldn't give her a straight answer if he even gave her one at all, but she decided to try anyway.

"I don't know. Honestly. I just feel… sick, tired, worn-down" Simba replied, sighing as the felt the weight in his gut start to grow slowly.

"Maybe you should get some rest" Nala proposed, concerned for him. She always wanted to help Simba in any way she could, but it always seemed like she had no way of helping him, because she had no idea as to what was wrong.

"I… what now…" Simba muttered, turning his head so that he was starting at Nala who was resting her head on his shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Nala asked, looking into his eyes and seeing pure pain.

"I… I don't know how to say this… but… I've just never, not had trouble. Every second of my life was a struggle and a non-stop grind for survival. I was the only one there to look after myself and I spent everyday beating myself up thinking that I was defective. All I'm trying to say is that all this new stuff, the friends, endless food, the… basic things all of you guys had that I didn't, I'm just not used to. I've only ever known pain Nala. That was who I was. And now… Now I don't know who I am…" Simba said breaking the eye contact and looking back out towards the savannah. Simba didn't know why, but it was almost like he preferred his daily struggles as a cub. Near the end of his dark days, it was just a rhythm and no longer trouble, so he got used to it. Now… now he had no idea as to who or what he was, and could only ever think about who he was and what he was.

"J-just give it some time" Nala said in disbelief. At that moment Nala was terrified. She was scared that Simba liked his old life more than his new life, and she wasn't in his old life…

"I love you… Always have and always will" Simba said as he placed a gentle kiss on her lips. Nala was about to return the kiss when he broke away and turned around. Nala quickly got up and trotted up beside him. She didn't really trust him right now to make the right choice and wanted to make sure that he was going to be ok.

"How about we just spend the day off? Just the two of us?" Nala said with a smile. She did want to hang out with her other friends today, but she was more concerned about Simba.

"Um… well… you should hang out with the others. You guys haven't done anything together for a while, and I kinda want some alone time to myself" Simba said giving her a smile, making it look like he wasn't completing shooting her down.

Nala gave him a suspicious look, which Simba noticed immediately. "I promise I'll stay in Pride Rock the entire time, and be in our usual spot when you return" Simba said with a smile as he nuzzled up into Nala.

Whether it was the nuzzle, or his reassuring words, Nala gave in to his requests and began to nuzzle him back. Nala wished that he would nuzzle him back more often. She was usually always doing the nuzzling while he just stayed stationary, reminding herself that she still needed to teach him how to nuzzle… or at least make sure he knew to repay the favor.

A few minutes later, Simba and Naa walked back into the cave were Tama and Kula had been waiting. Tama and Kula had seen their little moment and gave them smug grins on their way in. Simba acknowledged their grins but didn't make anything out of it.

"So what are we gonna do today?" Kula asked as she sat up.

"We were planning on doing something we haven't done in a long time. Hang out as a giant group" Tama said. It had been a little over a month since all the adolescents had done something fun together, and today both Tama and Nala felt like they should do it for old time sakes.

"We haven't done that in… uhh… a long time" Kula said, not being able to remember the exact time they all hung out together.

"Where do you think the boys are?" Nala asked.

"Somewhere" Kula replied.

"Either the spot they used to hang out at when they were cubs, or near the waterhole" Tama said.

"Well it's like really cold outside, so I don't wanna be walking around the pride lands all day looking for them" Kula said, not liking the idea of having to spend all day in the cold looking for her friends.

"It'll be fine" Tama said. It was cold, but it wasn't like they were going to freeze to death by staying outside for an hour.

"Hello, ladies, couldn't help but overhear the fact that you were looking for us" Malka said as he walked into the den with his chest puffed out and his head held high. Chumvi and Tojo were both behind him but weren't acting anywhere near as strange as he was.

"Yea..." Tama said, not really knowing how to respond to what Malka had said. Her first reaction was to laugh but knew that would only cause him to get worked up.

"Well worry no more. A real man has arrived" Malka said.

Nala, Tama, and Kula all started to giggle upon hearing him call himself a real man. Malka may be somewhat athletically gifted, but he was still a longshot compared to Simba.

"What's so funny?" Malka asked a little confused as to why they were laughing.

"You" Kula said standing up. Kula knew that Malka was going to do something stupid when she told this to him, but didn't care, it would probably be funnier than what he just did.

"Don't think I'm a man?" Malka asked. "Just set the record for the most pushups at one time" Malka said with a victories smirk.

"How many?" Tama asked. Unless he beat seventy-five, and Simba could probably do more than seventy-five, then Simba held the record for the most pushups at one time.

"Thirty-five" Malka said with a competitive smirk, enjoying that he was able to brag about his new record. Previously, Chumvi held the record at thirty-three, but Malka was able to squeeze in an extra two.

"Oh… Uh… Nice…" Tama said, looking over towards Simba, waiting for him to chime and let his record be known. She spotted Simba sleeping in the far corner of the cave-sleeping on the ground. She was confused as to why he was sleeping when they were planning to leave to spend the day together as a group.

"Yea, Uh, Good for you. Anyway, We were going to mess around in the pride lands for the day, you guys wanna join?" Kula said, not really caring about how many pushups he could do.

"Sure" The three males said in unison.

"Alright, let's go. I'll get Simba" Tama said, as she began to move towards Simba, but Nala held out a paw to stop her.

"He's staying behind. He's not feeling well" Nala said, not wanting to give the details of his problem.

"I can stay here and look after him if you want" Tama suggested.

"No, I already asked him and he said he would prefer if he was left alone" Nala said with a little distress in her voice.

"Ah, who cares. Probably a stomach bug. He'll be fine by sundown" Tojo said turning around and making his way out of the cave. Nala sighed, wishing it really only was a stomach bug and not the fact that he couldn't cope with his new lifestyle.

"Yea, let's just head out" Nala said.

Everyone started to file out one by one, and Tama gave one last look toward Simba. She could tell that he was hurting on the inside due to the fact that he wanted to be left alone, and Tama knew that he was the kind of person to do a thing like that.

Tama was seriously hesitating on whether she should stay or not. Normally, if someone told her they felt bad she would have just told them to suck it up, but Simba was different. She had a soft spot in her heart for him, and only him.

"Nala" Tama said in a voice below a whisper as to not alert the others. Nala looked over and was surprised to see that Tama hadn't moved that much and was looking concerned. "I can't do this. I'm going to look after Simba. Don't try and stop me" Tama said as she turned around and made her way over towards Simba.

Nala wanted to stop Tama but knew that she couldn't even if she tried to, so decided to let her go. Nala wanted to stay with Simba but knew that he would be fine with Tama there and she really did need to spend more time with her friends.

Without looking back, Nala heading out of Pride Rock and quickly caught up with the others who were at the bottom of Pride Rock waiting for her.

"Where's Tama?" Kula asked. Nala didn't want to tell them what was going on, because if she did, it would most certainly cause them to all get nosy and start asking questions. Sure, they were great friends, but like all friends, they got nosy from time to time.

"She didn't feel that well, so she decided to stay behind and rest" Nala said, passing everyone and walking towards the water hole. Thinking that some stomach bug or cold was going around, they all decided it best to just leave Tama and Simba alone before they also got sick.

Upon arriving at the waterhole, they were thrilled to see that no one was around and that the waterhole was there for the rest of the day. Upon placing their paws in the water, they all recoiled as the water was freezing, thus swimming wasn't an option.

"Of course. Now what?" Tojo asked. There was no swimming, no small animals to chase, and they couldn't travel too far away from Pride Rock without having their mothers yell at them.

"Let's go to the outlands" Malka said with a smirk.

"Can't. Are mothers would kill us if they caught up poking around that place" Chumvi said.

"So stupid that we can't go there. What are hyenas gonna do to us? Three big and strong males who know how to fight" Tojo said with a huff. Both Malka and Chumvi nodded along while Nala and Kula listened in disgust.

"It's because they love you. Now while you could probably fend off one hyena with ease, hyenas are pack hunter. They will start to swarm and surround you, and at that point, it doesn't matter who you are, you're dead" Kula said hoping that the idiotic males would understand why the outlands were off limits.

"Yea but it's not like we're dumb. We could just run away" Tojo suggested.

"Clearly you are seeing as you don't understand what it means to be surrounded" Kula said with a chuckle.

"Trust me I'm strong enough to survive on my own" Tojo said with confidence.

"Maybe, and I mean just maybe, Strong enough, but not smart enough" Kula said laughing at this point at how delusional Tojo was appearing to be.

"Oh and I suggest you could do better?" Tojo said starting to get fed up by Kulas act. Clearly, she didn't know that she was talking to a superior lion.

"No. I'm not strong enough to haul down a full-grown animal by myself like a zebra or buffalo. But, I'm smart enough. Simba taught be during the storm some real basic stuff" Kula said with a smirk, knowing that she wasn't some invincible lion god.

"Yea whatever" Tojo said turning around, wanting to save Kula the trouble.

"Ok… So, what should we do?" Chumvi asked. Normally, this would be a simple question, but seeing as how it was near freezing outside, most of their normal games wouldn't work.

"We could… … … Yea I got nothing" Malka said. Every time he thought of something, the cold weather seemed to make the plan impossible, or would just ruin it and make it suck for everyone.

"Damn, What happened to us? We used to all be so fun and playful. Now everything's different" Tojo said. He missed the old days when they were all young cubs and spent all day playing, and now… now it was all different.

"We grew up" Kula replied. Tojo then realized that they had just simply outgrown their cub days, and they were starting to become young adults with real responsibilities.

Nala had been focusing on something else than their conversations this entire time. She was walking as a strange figure that resembled a lioness, with a slightly larger male lion standing next to her, and next to the male, looked to be… her mother?

Nala watched as the three figures began to get closer and closer, and confirmed that they were all three lions, her mother was on the far right. The male in the middle Nala had never seen before, but Nala felt like she had seen the lioness on the left before… Almost like she knew her, but at the same time didn't.

Nala watched as the convoy began to get closer and closer… and her heart skipped a beat…

It was Ariya…

Nala had a million questions at that moment, her biggest wondering how Ariya had gotten here to fast. Nala observed that Ariya wasn't the same cub she met nearly seven months ago. That little cub had grown up into a young beautiful lioness who seemed to look like her in a way.

"Ariya?" Nala called out. Everyone looked over at Nala, wondering why she said an old friends name so suddenly, and all stopped dead as they saw someone they had expected they would never see again…

 **Ahhh! This took so long to write! Sorry for the delay guys, just got tangled up in life. (Great excuse Ikr) Anyway! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and the little cliffhanger at the end. So I know I said chapter 11 would be a lot about Malka, Chumvi, and Tojo, and for the most part, it kinda was, but they will get their fair share of screen time as well in chapter 12. So Ariya is finally here! But who is the strange lion next to her? Classified… that's who… Anywho, that just about does it for this chapter! Y'all have a good one! Mr_Toast out!**


	12. Ariya?

**Simba's Pain Chapter 12**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back, everyone! Hope Y'all are enjoying this fanfic because It's fun to write and I love hearing your feedback on it. I just want to say now that I deeply apologize for any prolonged waits in the future. I got school and two jobs to worry about as well, so finding time is hard but I try to write every time I can when I got free time. Hope you guys can understand and Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. With all that out of the way, Enjoy!**

"Ariya?" Nala called out. Everyone looked over at Nala, wondering why she said an old friends name so suddenly, and all stopped dead as they saw someone they had all expected they would never see again…

There were three lions approaching them. The lioness on the right was their Aunt, Sarafina. The lion in the middle they had never seen. The lioness on the left… was Ariya.

None of them knew what to really say at this moment. Ariya was from another pride and prides rarely ever visited each other, so for this to happen so suddenly was completely unexpected. All five of them stood in silence at the convoy made their way towards them with nervous glances being exchanged. Upon seeing the trio make their way towards them, the lion that they had never seen peeled off and turned around heading back towards the riverside pride, leaving them all with many questions.

"Everyone" Sarafina said once she was in talking distance, introducing the young lioness that they used to know that stood next to her. Malka, Chumvi, Tojo, and Kula now made their way over and begin to check out their old friend.

"Hello" "Hi" "Hey" "Hello" Malka, Chumvi, Tojo, and Kula said upon reaching them.

"Hey guys" Ariya said with a smile. She saw how they looked at her as if she was some kind of goddess, and smiled nervously as she wasn't used to being in the spotlight. She took a moment to study them all and noticed that they had all changed so much. Before this, she only knew their younger faces and still imaged them that way up to now, so was having re-process the way they looked in her head, as with how they sounded.

"Wow… Ariya… It's been so long since we've last met!" Kula said walking up and hugging her old friend.

"It really has been. A messenger arrived at our pride yesterday and I came as soon as we got your invitation" Ariya said breaking the hug. Everyone but Nala and Sarafina started to wonder what message she was referring to but knew that it was probably something that didn't concern them.

Ariya started to look over all of her friends and noticed that one of them was missing. "Where's Tama? Is she ok?" Ariya said. As far as Ariya knew, Tama was always with them and never missed out on an adventure or trip, so saw it strange to see that she wasn't with them.

"Tama's fine. She's back at Pride Rock with Simba. They said they didn't feel well and wanted to stay back" Nala said. Ariya was relieved to know that nothing bad happened to Tama but then started to wonder who Simba was.

"Who's Simba?" Ariya asked. She watched as her friends exchanged nervous glances, neither of them knew if they should tell her, and Ariya started thinking that she may have pushed her limits.

"He's the prince of Pride Rock, Son of the king. He's your age" Sarafina said, wondering why they all hesitated on telling Ariya.

"Wait isn't he that loser?" Ariya said, starting to remember that they sometimes talked about him when she was here for a week that one time. Everyone went stiff upon hearing this, as this was not something any of them talked about and knew that it was a sensitive topic for some people…

"No. He never was, and he's our friend now" Nala quickly said. Just like Mheetu, Ariya didn't know that Simba had become a part of the group and that they started to see him for who he really was. Ariya felt a little guilty but hoped that they would all just forget about it.

"Well, that's good news. Could we head back to Pride Rock? I'm freezing out here" Ariya said.

"Sure" Nala said turning around and marching towards Pride Rock. Nala cringed as that was one of the worst greetings she had ever attended before.

The group walked to Pride Rock with only small talk between them, making it a very awkward walk back. Upon entering the cave they spotted Tama and Simba having some kind of conversation when they turned around and spotted their friends and the new addition.

Tama smiled and leaped to her paws upon seeing Ariya, while Simba tensed up and froze…

"Ariya! It's great to see you" Tama said as she approached her friend and gave her a hug. Tama didn't really think that Ariya was going to make it, as bringing an outsider into a pride last moment was almost unheard of.

"Simba, come over here" Tama said. Simba slowly and cautiously made his way towards them. Simba stood in front of Ariya and look down, refusing to make eye contact.

"Hi Simba" Ariya said with a friendly smile, but Simba didn't acknowledge her and continued looking at the ground. "Hello?" Ariya said once more with a smile, with a little confusion as to why he didn't even move upon her greeting him. "Uh… Is he a… mute?" Ariya asked, not knowing if he had some disability that prohibited him from communicating.

"Of course not. Simba say hi" Kula said. All of them were wondering why Simba was acting like he was when he first met them all, and then realized something that they all forgot to think about. Simba knew them and was friends with them, but he was still shy and Ariya was a stranger to him. Simba was comfortable around them, but his past was preventing him from trusting her right now.

"Simba" Nala said in a stern voice, seeing if that would get his attention. Simba looked up and towards Nala immediately upon hearing Nala and the tone she used. "She won't hurt you. She's our friend. Say hello" Nala said in a much calmer voice this time, trying to give him some confidence.

Simba looked at Ariya now. "It's nice to meet you" Simba said extending his arm so that she could shake it. Ariya heard that his voice was a little deeper than the other males, and when she shook his arm, she observed his cephalic vein was bulging as if he was hauling a heavy load. She looked up and down at his arm and saw the complex network of veins and the muscles that they rested on, wondering why he would have even been scared of her hurting him. Ariya didn't know how to fight, and Simba was definitely stronger than her.

"Likewise" Ariya said, taking her arm back, and then studying him over. He was slightly bigger, had a larger mane, deeper voice, but way more defined than the others. She noticed all the scars over his body, especially the two on his chest and diaphragm, and concluded that he was different than the rest.

"Well, besides Simba, everything else is the same" Kula said, not wanting the silence to last too long.

"That's nice. Seems like things are going great here" Ariya said with a smile. Only Nala and Sarafina knew something about times being hard for the Riverside pride, with Simba and Tama having a hint of an idea as what was going on, but no one else knew this and thought nothing of her comment.

"So what would you like to do" Tojo said nervously. His old crush for her had found its place in his heart once again and was a lot bigger this time. She had changed a lot since she was last here, and one of those changes was beauty. Tojo thought that she was pretty and whatnot when he was younger, but now he thought that she was just downright hot.

"I traveled through the night to get here so I wouldn't have to spend it sleeping in an unfamiliar place, so I think I'll spend most of today just resting" Ariya said. Everyone nodded and watched as Ariya her way towards the side of the den and lied down to get some rest.

"So… anyone know why she's here?" Chumvi asked having no idea as to why Ariyas visit was so sudden. Normally, they would have been told about something like this, but for some reason, none of them were, except for Tama and Simba.

"For a visit. A prolonged one. She will be staying with us for some time. There isn't a problem with that is there?" Sarafina asked making sure that all adolescents knew what was going on.

"No" They all said in unison.

"Good" Sarafina said. Just as Sarafina said that Mheetu came running up the hill that led to Pride Rock after hearing that his mother had returned.

"Hey mom" Mheetu said as he trotted up to his mother and walked under her. Mheetu was still small enough to stand under Sarafina with his head under hers, but would soon be too big to do this. Sarafina noticed that she was having to stand taller than normal so that he could fit under her, and knew that he was growing rapidly. It almost made Sarafina sad to see that her youngest cub was starting to grow up and soon, like his sister, wouldn't depend on her anymore.

"Hello" Sarafina said, nuzzling her son. Sarafina had placed Mheetu under the watchful eyes of the other mothers for the night she spent going to the Riverside pride, and Mheetu must have come running when he heard she was back.

"When will I be big enough to be in the pride lands all by myself?" Mheetu asked, know that at six months Nala was allowed to be in the pride lands without mom around.

"Not for a long time" Sarafina said with a sigh, knowing where this was going to go. Unfortunately, Mheetu looked up a lot to his sister and was always wanting to do the things Nala was allowed to, but Nala was also around six and a half months older than him.

"That's not fair. Nala was my age when she was allowed outside by herself" Mheetu protested, seeing no reason as to why Nala was able to go out at his age when he couldn't.

"But Nala always had her friends there to watch after her" Sarafina said, explaining why Nala was allowed to leave at a younger age.

"But there's no one else my own age" Mheetu pouted. Sarafina sighed, knowing that it must be hard to be the only cub your age in the entire pride. Then, Sarafina realized something huge… Mheetu was the only cub his age… meaning that he wasn't going to have a mate for a long time, and this would most definitely cause drama, but she would deal with that when the time came.

"I'm sorry about that but there's nothing I can do. You can't go outside by yourself yet and that's finale" Sarafina said, hating to have to shoot down Mheetu like that. Sarafina knew that he was young, energetic, and wanted nothing more than to explore, but she wasn't ok with him being in the pride lands by himself yet.

From all the commotion, Ariya had gotten up to see what was going on. "Is everything alright?" Ariya asked walking up and then seeing a young whiteish cub under Sarafina that had to probably be the most cutest thing she had ever seen.

Mheetu instinctively crawled back further under his mother, attempting to hide from this unknown lioness that stood in front of him. "Yes, my youngest here was just wanting to roam around the pride lands by himself" Sarafina said, noticing Mheetu's reactions and knowing that it was best to introduce the two if Ariya was going to be staying for a while. Mheetu was born after Ariya left, so this was the first time the two had ever seen each other.

"Aww, Nala you never said anything about having a baby brother. He's so cute" Ariya said studying the young cub. Ariya, her brother, and all her friends were the youngest in their pride at eleven months old and didn't have any younger cubs like Mheetu, so this was Ariya's first time seeing one.

"Never occurred to me" Nala said with a chuckle.

Mheetu saw how Ariya and his sister seemed to be friends, so decided that if Nala trusted her, he could too. Mheetu slowly started to come out from under his mother to greet this strange lioness, watching how she seemed to be extremely friendly and nice by the way she talked.

"Hey Mheetu" Ariya said leaning down to get eye level with the young cub in a sweet tone.

"H-hi" Mheetu said shyly. Mheetu knew that this strange lioness meant no harm towards him, but it was natural for cubs to coward away from other lions and lionesses that they didn't know.

"I'm Ariya and from the Riverside pride across the river to the east. I'll be staying here for a while" Ariya said introducing herself.

"Are you friends with my sister?" Mheetu asked. As long as she was friends with Nala, she could be his best friend.

"Sure am" Ariya said with a smile. Mheetu gave Ariya a smile and came fully out from under Sarafina. Sarafina watched with a smile on her face at how Mheetu was warming up to Ariya s quickly, relieved to know that there wouldn't be any problems between these two in the future.

"So what are you doing here?" Mheetu asked, wondering why she had come and why he wasn't told about her stay.

"I'm staying here for a while. I've visited like this once before when we were all very young. Before you were born" Ariya said with a smile.

"Oh, well it's still as awesome as always and you'll love it here. Oh, and I don't know if you know but Simba isn't a loser anymore. Don't call him that because it upsets Nala. He used to be a loser with no friends but as of recently he-" "Ok that's enough" Sarafina said, cutting her youngest upon hearing that he was talking about a touchy topic. Sarafina looked around and saw that all had some uneasy looks on, and wished that Mheetu didn't bring up the subject. Mheetu wasn't to blame really as he was still young and didn't know that the particular topic was a touchy one.

"Noted" Ariya said with a chuckle, stealing a quick glance over towards Simba who looked to be lost. She saw that he was just sitting among the other, attempting to fit in and look as normal as possible, but failing miserably. Ariya could tell that he was unsure and nervous. Ariya knew that she was going to have to have a talk with him at some point and establish that she was nice and not a threat, but could already tell that the others would try and protect him for her.

"Well we'll be around if you need anything, but you should probably get some rest today so we can actually do something together tomorrow" Kula said.

"Thanks, and it was nice to meet you Mheetu" Ariya said smiling once more at the cute cub that stood before her. Ariya got back up and turned around, returning to her original spot along the side of the cave.

"Awkward…" Malka said as he got up to leave, knowing that that little encounter they had just had was really weird. Everyone started to shuffle out and go into Pride Rock to find to do, as leaving their guest alone to go play games elsewhere would have been considered rude.

Nala noticed that Simba was walking in the opposite direction of the den and was on a course that would lead him down and away from Pride Rock, and started to wonder where he was going.

"Hey" Nala said as she trotted up to Simba, still a little concerned as to how he would take this whole Ariya situation. Nala felt dumb that she didn't think this would occur, and wished she had more time to help him prepare for something like this.

"Hi" Simba said, looking her way but not stopping to talk. Nala noticed how he didn't stop and wanted to know why he was in such a hurry.

"So where are you going" Nala asked matching his pace as they started to walk down the rocky hill that led up to Pride Rock.

"Not sure, probably just going to walk around" Simba said. Nala knew that he was trying to avoid something. Instead of staying inside of Pride Rock which was warm, he would rather walk around the pride lands and freeze all day.

"You don't want to be near Ariya" Nala said, knowing that he was trying to avoid Ariya. Simba sighed, not knowing what he was trying to do. He felt uneasy being near her as she was a stranger to him, and feared that as soon as he let his guard down, his past would return.

"It's not that… it's just… What if I trust her and then she ends up trying to deceive me?" Simba said in a hopeless tone. Nala knew that Simba would always have trust issues like this, but never thought that it would be so bad, or occur for such a long time.

"She would never do such a thing" Nala said seriously, wanting to make it clear that Ariya was a friend and someone who could be trusted.

"I know… but what if she does. You can never be sure of something like this" Simba said letting his head drop. A few seconds went by, and Simba felt a paw under his chin that guided his head up so that he was looking into her eyes again. Nala began to intently study Simba's facial features. She gently glided her paw over to his check and started to brush over the spot that Kula had scratched him a few days ago.

"I remember…" Nala started but found it hard to say what she was about to say, as it was possibly one of the most painful things to think about. "I remember a time when you would have done just about anything to get a friend. A time that you could have been beaten up, and still treat that person with the respect they didn't deserve. A time when the only thing you ever did was talk to yourself, and further degraded yourself. You once told me that you would do anything for a friend, but as soon as you got me, that all changed. You didn't want to meet Tama or Kula, and now you don't want to get to know Ariya" Nala said feeling a heavy feeling in her chest as she said that.

"I never really wanted friends…" Simba said looking down, about to tell her something that he hadn't really planned on telling her.

"What…" Nala asked, shocked.

"I… uh… Never really wanted friends. What I really wanted was love. That was my life goal. To find love. And once I found it, I had completed the only thing I ever wanted to. I never thought that I would find someone who could love me, so when I did… that was it. And now… well, now I just want things to stay the way they are" Simba said honestly.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Nala asked, wondering why he would have kept something like this from her. Nala knew she had made it clear many time that all she wanted to do was help him, so the fact that he never asked for it made her wonder why.

"Never really thought it would be a big deal" Simba said. "I just don't feel like I have a… purpose" Simba said, not really sure if what he had said made sense.

"Purpose?" Nala asked confused as to what he meant by that. He was the prince of Pride Rock and one day would become king, and if that wasn't enough his purpose could always be to be there for her.

"I just feel like there's nothing for me to do. Sure I might become the king, but as of now, it's like there's nothing for me to do… or… I don't even know what I'm trying to say" Simba said with a sigh towards the end. A few seconds went by in silence before Nala spoke up again.

"Do you know what nuzzling is?" Nala asked randomly. Simba was confused by this as it wasn't like Nala to drop the subject they were talking about but answered the question none-the-less.

"Yes" Simba replied.

"Then how come you never nuzzle?" Nala asked. Simba was confused by this as it seemed that he and Nala nuzzled all time during the day.

"I do" Simba replied sounding a little confused. Nala chuckled upon hearing this. Nala had given up on helping Simba with his 'purpose' as that was something he would have to find himself. He would have to decide what was important to him and what wasn't, so Nala decided to play a little game with him.

"No" Nala said falling in towards Simba and letting him support her weight as she had done so many times before. "I nuzzle. You just sit here like this, every time, never returning it. Why?" Nala said sounding almost a little happy.

"Um… not sure. I always thought that this was nuzzling?" Simba replied sounding ever more confused this time. As far as Simba was concerned, every time Nala had nuzzled him he thought that by what he was doing, he was satisfying her.

"Not really. You just standing there is not what I would call nuzzling" Nala said, getting a new idea. Right now Nala really didn't care what she had planned to do today, she was just going to have some fun with her Simba and relax. Nala quickly led Simba down from Pride Rock and then around back to have more privacy.

Upon arriving behind Pride Rock, Simba was confused as to what Nala had planned as he wasn't really used to her more playful attitude.

"Sit" Nala almost commanded. Simba was a little confused as to what she had planned but sat down after a moment. Upon sitting down, Nala moved towards him until she was just a few inches away before sitting down in front of him. Upon sitting down in front of him, Nala noticed that he appeared to be nervous, making her adore him even more. Nala always thought that Simba looked so cute when he was nervous, and both of her best friends could back her up on this.

Nala slowly lifted her paw and rested on his chest, right over his heart. Upon doing this, she felt that his heart rate increased a little and the muscles in his chest tightened slightly when she did this. Nala felt that his heartbeat slowly after a few moments of her staying still for a few seconds, but as soon as she moved it ever so slightly, his heart rate skyrocket once again, and let a huge smile come to her face.

"You still have a crush on me" Nala said with a giggle. Nala couldn't put into words how adorable it was that Simba still got nervous when she rested her paw on his chest, just like the first time. Upon thinking of that, Nala saw a series of flashbacks of where she and Simba were starting to meet and ended with their first kiss.

"Huh?" Simba said. Simba wasn't trying to deny it, but it made no sense to have a crush on someone you were dating… because you were… dating.

"You're nervous, and it's adorable" Nala said playfully. Simba didn't understand how she saw that he was adorable or cute, but for the most part, he just went with it.

"Oh, uh, thanks" Simba said not really knowing how to reply to a compliment like that.

Nala removed her paw from his chest, and prepared to do something with him that she had wanted to test with him for a long time, but didn't have the confidence up to now.

"Simba" Nala said, even though she had his undivided attention. "I'm going to kiss you" Nala said, cringing slightly as she heard how weird it sounded. "Relax and don't be scared to return it" Nala said. Nala had an idea as to why Simba never really returned her nuzzles or kissed her back with confidence. It was that he was scared he would mess up and disappoint her.

Nala slowly brought her face towards his and within seconds her lips landed on his and she started the kiss. Nala could feel that he was kissing her back, was relaxed, but knew that he was still holding back. Nala moved her paw up to his chest and rested it over his heart as she was just previously doing.

Simba felt this and knew that it was her way of telling him it was ok and that he could let go. Simba made the decision and gave fully into the kiss, fearing that he would mess up.

Nala didn't have the words to explain the feeling going through her body. All this time he had been holding, yet it was still perfect. So when he gave it everything he had, it made it even more perfect, which didn't seem possible. Nala let the kiss last for a few more seconds before she broke for air.

"Wow" Nala said looking deep into Simba's eyes. Simba gave Nala a nervous glance, not knowing if that was a, 'wow, you're good at this', or a, 'wow, you suck'.

"How… was it?" Simba asked praying that he didn't disappoint her. Nala knew that she could respond with words, but didn't see any reason to if she didn't have to, to begin with. Nala went back in and caught his lips again, telling him her answer. The kiss lasted for only a few seconds before Nala broke it.

"Yes!" Nala said happily. Simba was confused when she kissed him for the second time, but the 'yes!' was what really confused him.

"Yes?" Simba said, wondering what 'yes' meant.

"I finally did it. All this time you had been holding back and I've finally managed to make you open up" Nala said nuzzling into his chest. Simba decided that he would do something stupid and respond with a nuzzle, just how she responded with a kiss. Nala was nuzzling into his chest and neck when she felt him dropped his head, and on the way back up he nuzzled into the side of her neck and face.

Nala had no words to describe how happy she was. She had finally been successful at getting Simba to understand that he didn't have to be afraid or hold back around her. Nala was overcome with excitement and tackled Simba to the ground.

Simba was caught off guard by this and fell over, but was able to stop himself and Nala from stumbling any further. Simba ended up on his back with Nala lying on top of him. Nala stared deeply into Simba's eyes with a pure look of joy. Nala hadn't been able to enjoy Simba without the stress of the trials or the adolescents before, so was going to make the most of this.

"Nala" Simba said sounding curious. Nala rolled over so that she and Simba were on their sides and staring at each other. "I just realized something not too long ago" Simba said, now earning a stumbled look from Nala.

"That day I was heading back to my place and you were going back to the waterhole, we ran into each other, literally, and I feel like if we didn't, none of this would have ever happened" Simba said. Nala thought back to that day when she ran into him and called him an idiot for it. Nala was now deep in thought about how if she hadn't run into him, she would have never followed him and would have never gotten to know him.

"Yea" Nala said quietly. Nala realized that her decision to follow him after she ran into him had led up to everything that had happened by now.

"Ever wonder what would have happened if we hadn't bumped into each other? Like how things would turn out and what we would be doing right now?" Simba said. Nala knew the answer to the question and didn't like it. If she had never bumped into Simba, then she would have never gotten to know him and he would have never been integrated into her friend group.

"Not really, because I like how things are going now and I don't want them to ever change" Nala said with a smile, closing the distance between them and snuggling up into him.

"Me neither, but we might not have a choice" Simba said. Nala was confused when he said this because she loved doing this and knew that he did, so the fact that he said they might not do this one day worried her.

"What do you mean?" Nala said looking up and seeing that he was looking down at her.

"Well one day I'll be king and you'll be queen, meaning that we will have responsibilities and not much free time" Simba said. Nala's heart stopped… Not because of the responsibilities part, but because he said that one day she would be queen… meaning that he wanted to marry her! That one day he would ask her to stand by his side for the rest of time!

"Simba!" Nala said happily, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly. Simba was shocked when he saw her reaction. Simba knew that spending less time with each other was a bad thing, so had no idea as to why she was so happy.

"Yea?" Simba said unsure, hugging her back slightly confused as to what she was doing and by the way she was acting.

Nala broke the hug and shot up, in which Simba quickly got up himself. "You want to marry me?" Nala said with a smile. Simba felt an explosion of nervousness go off inside of his when he heard this. Simba realized that he gave the clue away when he said she would be queen one day, meaning that he was set on the idea of marrying her.

"I'm s-sorry I didn't mean to be so upfront about it" Simba said with a slight stutter.

"Are you kidding me? This is great! There is no one I would rather spend the rest of my life that you" Nala said running up to hug him. Simba felt really nervous. He wanted to marry Nala, there was no question about that, but the idea of being married to the most beautiful lioness in the world made him nervous.

"Oh" Simba said hugging her back like before. Nala knew that he was nervous and very confused, but also knew that it wouldn't take that long for him to relax and return to normal.

"Umm… Nala… There's something you need to know…" Simba said nervous, again, but the nervousness was different, much more fear behind it. Nala heard the way he sounded and quickly look up, knowing that whatever he had to say was important and probably hurting him.

"What?" Nala asked, curious and concerned to what he had to say.

"Umm… I can't really say this in any good way, and you're going to beyond mad at me, but I can't keep this to myself any longer, you deserve to know" Simba said sounding unbelievably guilty. Nala didn't really know what to say upon hearing this. She had no idea that Simba was keeping something for her, and by the sounds of it, it was something big.

"Simba. I'll make you a promise. Tell me what's bothering you, and I'll not get mad, storm away, and anything like that, and I will still love you the same as before" Nala said with a smile. Nala knew that her behavior before she changed was probably the reason that Simba kept this secret and that now she was not so protective of him, she could maybe handle it.

"Umm… ok yes… Just listen, and don't assume anything until I'm finished, please" Simba said. Nala gave him a nod so that he could spill the news already. "Ok… Well… I'm uh… Well It's kind of complicated, but not really, but like… uh-" "Simba" Nala said, wanting him to just say what he needed to say already, seeing as all he was doing was stalling. "Ok. I'm in love with Tama but I don't love her as I love you I love her like a sister" Simba said quickly, flinching as he knew that it was a mistake to tell her this and that she would probably flip her shit.

Simba looked at Nala to see that she had somewhat of a blank face on, and was confused as to why she hadn't reacted already. "Ok" Nala said calmly, leaving Simba speechless.

"You're… you're not mad?" Simba finally managed to say after a few moments. Not too long ago she didn't want him around her, and now she didn't seem like she cared that he had complex feelings for her.

"Nope" Nala said with a slight smile and a little chuckle.

"But… why? I. Love. Her. I love her, Nala" Simba said making sure she had understood him correctly.

"So? I love her too. I love everyone in that cave like a brother or a sister, but I only love you in a special way" Nala said with a smile. Simba felt relieved beyond measures upon hearing this and was just beyond shocked to see that she had changed so much in such a little time.

"You really have changed…" Simba said.

"I already knew" Nala said with a smile, literally causing Simba to break.

"How?" Simba said. Simba remembered Sarafina telling him that Nala couldn't find out about this, so she didn't tell her, and Simba knew that Tama didn't either.

"Come on Simba. Your relationship with Tama is… well… unbreakable I guess. That look of trust in your eyes when you make eye contact looks absolute, so there isn't anything I could do even if I wanted to. Plus, you're going to need all the help you can get if you ever want to run this place" Nala said with a smile.

"Yea" Simba said, turning around and walking up to higher ground. He looked from one side of the savannah to the other, observing is home, talking in every detail, knowing that one day he might be king of these lands.

Simba felt something brush up into the side of his shoulder, and then into the side of his neck. Simba knew that this was Nala nuzzling up into his side as a way of telling him that things would be ok. "I'm going back inside" Simba said placing a gentle kiss on Nala lips, in which Nala returned but forced Simba to hold it. The two stayed like that for some time before breaking for air and the two making their way back into Pride Rock.

The two young lions were thinking entirely on what had just happened and what they had just learned about each other, taking their relationship to a whole new level. Nala had finally gotten Simba to stop holding back and start to open up more, and Simba had taken a huge weight off his shoulders when he told Nala about him and Tama without her making a huge fuss about it.

Upon stepping inside of Pride Rock they both felt the air around them heat up almost twice to what it had been outside. It was now cold enough to where ice crystals were forming on the surface of smaller bodies of water and you could see your own breath. Some animals ranted on about this being the beginning of the end, but everyone knew that this was just an unusual cold front that would go away in time.

Immediately upon entering Nala noticed that Simba started to act strangely just like how he was acting before they left, and knew that he was just nervous and hadn't warmed up to her yet. Nala sighed and knew that it was just going to take time, but also knew that Simba wasn't going to be able to relax if some stranger was near him.

"Want to spend the rest of the day somewhere else?" Nala asked him in a quiet voice so that people wouldn't be able to tune into their conversation.

"A little" Simba said with a chuckle, knowing that it must have been annoying for Nala to change her plans constantly just so that she could make him feel better.

"Well if you'd like to leave you can, but see if either Tama or Kula would like to keep you company" Nala said, surprising Simba a little. Nala always wanted to be a part of whatever Simba was doing, so to hear that she didn't want to go with him if he left was just a little surprising to him.

"You don't want to come with me?" Simba asked in the most casual tone he could as to make her think he was upset with her not wanting to, not that he was.

"I'm tired and I don't like being cold, so I'll pass" Nala said, already seeing that her 'plan' was starting to take effect on him. On the walk back into Pride Rock, Nala decided that she was going to force Simba to start and become less dependent on her, as he would need to learn to not fully rely on her. One of the problems with Simba was that he depended far too much on her and was always asking her what he should do, which was fine in the past, but if Simba became the king he would need to learn to make decisions on his own.

"Ok, see you later" Simba said whilst turning around to see if anyone would keep him company throughout the day, wondering what was up with Nala.

Simba looked around and spotted Kula first, but saw that she and Chumvi were lying down next to each other playing some little game that involved little cuttles and what not, so Simba thought it best to just let them spent their time in peace. Simba soon found Tama sleeping by herself in the far back of the den and began to walk up to her.

Simba stopped a few feet away from her and began to lean down to nudge her when he stopped and wondered if he should wake her up or not. Simba knew that waking someone up could be considered rude, but Tama was his friend so he wondered if was ok or not.

Simba decided to take Nala advice and be more confident with his actions and nudged her gently as to not startle her. Upon doing this, Tama opened her eyes and saw that Simba's face was next to her and he had a concerned looked on his face, which made her worry that something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" Tama asked lying up quickly but not fully sitting up. Simba was confused by this as he had made no indication that something was wrong, so wondered why she thought something was wrong.

"Nothing just wanted to know if you'd like to spend that day with me" Simba said awkwardly as it almost sounded like he was hitting on her. Tama relaxed and dismissed that fact that he had a worried face as his expression had changed.

"Uh… sure. Anywhere you want to go? Preferably somewhere warm and somewhat comfortable" Tama said, secretly knowing that Simba was finding it hard to relax with Ariya around, and decided that she would use her time with him to explain she was nice. Tama was also confused as to why he wasn't going to go with Nala, but when she looked over, she saw that she was sleeping.

"Remember that cave we took shelter in?" Simba said. Tama nodded, having a short series of horrible flashbacks of his wound and all the blood.

"Want to go there?" Simba asked. Tama nodded and stood up, beginning to walking out of Pride Rock with Simba in tow. Tama looked over and saw that Nala eyes were now open and Nala gave her a wink. Tama was confused but then realized that Nala was responsible and smiled a little upon realizing this.

The two walked down from Pride Rock, and onto a trail that would take them somewhere near where the cave was. Tama wanted to talk to Simba, and was waiting for him to say something, but was slightly disappointed when he stayed silent. Tama didn't know why, but right now she felt a strong urge to talk to him but he was just doing what he always did, stayed silent.

"Do you think I'm cute?" Simba finally said after a few moments of walking in silence. Tama was confused by this, as this wasn't something that people really just brought up from the blue.

"Yea… why do you ask?" Tama said with a slight chuckle.

"Nala is always saying things like how cute and adorable I am, but I don't see how I'm cute or adorable" Simba said sounding puzzled. Tama knew that his question had something to do with Nala, but wondered how he didn't realize how adorable or cute he was, after all, it was really noticeable.

"Hold up" Tama said stepping in front of him and stopping him. Tama sat down in front of him and proceeded to bring her paw up to his face and rested it on his cheek. Instantly, she felt him go tense. "You act nervous when I do this, which I kinda adore, so I can definitely see how Nala finds in adorable" Tama replied, removing her paw and observing that Simba still looked confused.

"I guess I know that you guys find it adorable or cute whenever I get nervous or something like that, but I'm asking why" Simba said still wanting more clarity to his question. Tama thought about this for a moment and really wasn't sure as to why she thought it was adorable, besides from the fact that it just was.

"Not sure, I mean… well, I don't really have an answer for that besides the fact that we just do. You would have to look at it from a girls perspective" Tama said shrugging and turning around continuing down the path that they were previously walking on. Simba stood still and thought about what she had said for a moment before realizing that she was leaving and went to catch up.

"So what do you want to do for the rest of the day?" Simba asked trotting up next to her.

"Get you to like Ariya" Tama said looking over at him and seeing him have a somewhat confused look on his face.

"I don't dislike her if that's what you mean" Simba replied after a few seconds of awkward silence. Tama gave him and small smile upon hearing this, as it seemed like he never understood what she truly meant, but then again he missed out on a lot of his cubhood, so his social skills would take a while to fully develop.

"I mean getting you to realize that she's not going to bully you and you don't have to worry about her doing anything bad to you" Tama said clarifying what she meant.

"Nala already gave me that talk" Simba said. Tama knew that Nala had probably already done some things to help him, but then again there was still some work to do as he was there and not in Pride Rock.

"Didn't seem to have much of an effect on you" Tama said. Simba began wondering what she meant by this but then understood what she meant as he was still uncomfortable being around her.

"It's working its way in" Simba said with a chuckle, but when he looked over he saw that Tama wasn't focussing on him as she looked to be deep in thought.

"Simba… weird question… but if I just randomly walked up to you one day and punched you in the face, what would you do?" Tama asked, wanting to figure something out about him.

"Uh…" Simba started but was so confused by the question that he had to take a few moments to think about it. "Wonder what I did wrong" Simba replied after a few seconds.

"One of your problems is that whenever something goes wrong you always assume that it was your fault" Tama said with a defeated look.

"Tama" Simba said stopping, causing her to stop as well and take a step back so that she was next to him. "Want to just do something fun or relax? All we ever seem to do is talk about all the bad things and I don't want to miss out on all the good things" Simba said, making Tama think deeply about what he said. Tama thought about what he said and concluded that it really did seem like they only talked about bad things and never did something that normal friends would do.

"When was the last time we did something fun together?" Tama asked, not being able to recall the last time she truly had fun with Simba.

"Never" Simba said with a small dry chuckle. "And I don't really know many games" Simba said, sounding like he had given up on the idea of having fun as he didn't really know how to.

"Well how about I teach you some" Tama proposed, and Simba gave her an uncertain look back. "It'll be fine, there really simple and take no time to master" Tama said sitting up and taking a few steps back.

"Know what pinned ya is?" Tama said, listing her favorite game first. Tama was always the most aggressive and committed when they played that game, part of the reason why she had never lost before.

"Heard Kula say something about it" Simba said. Tama suppressed the urge to grin and she was going to try and catch him off guard whilst explaining what it was and pin him.

"It's simple. You pin the other one of their back, and when they can't get back up, you say 'Pinned ya'. Like this!-" Tama said calmly at first, but then suddenly leaping out towards Simba's legs to trip him and cause him to fall on his back.

Tama tackled Simba to the ground way harder than she would have ever intended to and was both surprised and worried when she felt herself slam him into the ground with a loud and hard thud. Tama looked down at Simba and saw that he looked to be fine, but was putting up no fight.

"Fight back" Tama said after a few seconds of watching him just look back at her to see what he was supposed to do next. Tama watched as he didn't really know what she meant when she said 'fight back' so decided that she would show him what to do.

Tama got off of him and let Simba back up. "Ok, so you're going to tackle me, and once you do, I'm going to show you what to do" Tama said getting into a bracing stance. Tama watched as Simba slowly and unsurely approached her, but he didn't seem like he had any intent on tackling her.

"Just tackle me" Tama said with a chuckle, not understanding why he was so reluctant to do something so childish and simple.

"I… can't" Simba said after a few seconds. Tama broke her stance, wondering why he couldn't tackle her.

"Why?" Tama asked.

"Because I'll hurt you" Simba said giving her an emotional look. Tama then realized that Simba used to have problems about hurting people he loved, and figured that he was just afraid that he would actually end up hurting her.

Tama walked up to Simba and sat in front of him, looking down at his right paw. Tama slowly brought her paw down and rested it on his forearm, before gently pulling up and lifting his arm up. Tama knew that Simba had more than enough strength to fight her, and could easily keep his paw on the ground, yet he just let her move it around freely without any resistance.

Tama turned his paw around so that the bottom part of his paw was facing up and gently ran her other free paw over his. Simba watched curiously as to what Tama was doing with his paw, not having seen anyone else ever do something like this before.

Tama slowly brought his paw up and rested it on her cheek. Simba quickly grew nervous as he had no idea as to what this meant, and had never done something like this before. Tama held her paw over his for a few moments before slowly taking her paw of his, leaving just his paw on her cheek.

Tama gave Simba a look that he had never seen before. Something about that look she gave him told him that he needed to do something else. Simba carefully and gently started to slowly move his paw across her cheek and back towards her neck before bring in back and resting in where it had previously been before.

"See. I'm fine" Tama said with a light chuckle. "Now trust me when I say this and just pin me" Tama said hoping that he would do it this time. Simba let his paw drop to the ground and let out a long sigh.

"I…" Simba started but died off knowing that Nala would be disappointed upon hearing what he had to say. Simba didn't know why, but something inside his head was just preventing him from tackling her.

"Why are you afraid of hurting me? I'm not fragile, Trust me" Tama said with a chuckle recalling all the times she has thrown herself around while trying to pin people, and never once suffered an injury.

"I don't know. I mean I guess I'm just a lot bigger and whatnot than you so I'm afraid I'll just overpower you" Simba said not having a real answer. Tama sighed, knowing that she couldn't do anything about that.

"How hard would you try at tag?" Tama asked, knowing that he was the fastest of their age group by far.

"Probably not very" Simba said with a chuckle. Tama honestly didn't know what to say about Simba besides the fact that he was so different from what would be considered a normal male that it almost made him perfect. He never bragged, showed off, and didn't want to win at games even when he could easily do so.

Tama was thinking about what they could do for fun before her thoughts ventured back to him being afraid to use his, and then got an idea. Arm wrestling. Tama lied down all of a sudden and looked up towards Simba, motioning him to lie down in front of her so that their bodies were intended with each other and both their front paws were touching.

"Put your arm up like this" Tama instructed. Tama then planted her elbow on the group and lifted her arm so that it formed and forty-five-degree angle. Simba, confused, did what she did and waited for her to say something else. Upon doing this, Tama gripped his paw tighter, and Simba gripped her paws as well, unsure of what she was trying to do.

"Ok, this is simple. What your going to do is try and make the top of my paw touch the group by pushing it over. Lemme show you" Tama said. Tama effortless pushed Simba's paw over to the side so that the top of his paw was touching the ground. "When either of us does this to the other, we win. Make sense?" Tama asked.

"Yea, but can I ask what's the point of this?" Simba asked having no idea as to what they were doing this for.

"To show you that you're not going to break me just by tackling me, or being rough" Tama said. Simba gave her his all time famous look that was a mixture of confusion and curiosity, and Tama gave him a small grin.

"So, I'm going to lock my arm, and you're going to use whatever force necessary to push my paw to the ground" Tama said. Simba gave her a small nod, and Tama locked her arm so that it would be hard for Simba to move it. "Go" Tama said and waiting for Simba to start.

Simba slowly started to push against her arm but found that it wouldn't budge. Tama felt that amount of force Simba was using and knew that he was never going to even make her budge unless he actually tried.

"Harder. Don't stop until my paw in of the ground like I showed you" Tama said.

Simba began to slowly and increase his force by the seconds, not wanting to do something too quick so he had time to react in case something went wrong. Tama watched as he started to use more force, the complex network of veins in his arm started to bulge and observed all the muscle in his arms leading up to his shoulder. Tama knew that he was ripped and all, but had never seen him flex, so she found herself realizing that he may have been much stronger than she anticipated.

Tama started to feel it get hard to keep her paw up and started to push back. Tama kept pushing until she as giving it everything she had until her arm slowly started moving down towards the ground. Not long after that, Simba was able to pin her paw down and won the match.

"See, Perfectly fine" Tama said while getting up. Then she remembered something else. When he taught her some fighting moves that she was interested in, he never held back and pinned her a few times while giving her demonstrations, so Tama really found it odd that he was ok pinning her then, but not now.

"Remember when you gave me those fighting lessons?" Tama asked, seeing him nod before she continued. "Well during them you used to pin me and use your strength against me pretty often, and I was completely fine afterward. So why can't you do that when playing games?" Tama asked, knowing that Simba would have a very hard time trying to find an excuse for this.

"I… uh… don't know really" Simba said not knowing why he was able to pin her then, but not know. "I guess it's maybe that I'm not afraid of hurting you or something like that, but I just can't really fight back unless it's real? Ya know?" Simba said trying to think of why he could do it then, but didn't feel right now.

"Then pretend were having a sparring match where the only move we can use is a pin, and the first one to pin the other wins" Tama proposed, thinking that maybe that would make it 'real'.

"So basically Pinned ya is just a fancy name for sparring?" Simba said trying to get in the right mindset.

"Yup" Tama said, getting down in a pouncing position. Simba got into his readying position shortly after, and Tama began the countdown. "Three… two… one… go!"

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala was sitting just outside of the den where the freezing air from outside was mixing with the warm air inside, so it was still bearable. Nala felt really happy right now as she felt like she was successful in being able to get Ariya over to the pride lands, but then remembered why she originally did it.

Nala turned around and looked inside of Pride Rock to see that Tojo was watching Ariya from a distance, appearing to be far too scared and nervous to approach her. Nala knew that Tojo wanted to go up to her and probably try and make small talk with her, but either didn't know what to say or didn't have the mane to do it.

Tojo was so focused on watching Ariya and deciding what he was going to do that he didn't even hear Nala come up behind him. "Hey" Nala said knowing that she was going to startle him. Tojo turned around quickly having been startled by whoever caught him staring at Ariya, but was relieved when he saw that it was only Nala and she already knew about his situation.

"Hey" Tojo said back before turning around, looking over at Ariya who was still asleep and sighed.

"Go talk to her" Nala said making it sound simple. Tojo looked back over at her wondering why she made it sound like it was going to be the easiest thing he'd ever do.

"And say what?" Tojo asked, having no idea as to what he was going to say to her. Nala decided that she was just going to have to paint the picture for him so that he'd man up and go talk to her.

"Look, I know you're nervous and whatnot, but you have to at least try. You never once came up to me and asked me on a date, or even tried to get to know me a little better. You played from the side and hoped that all the little things you did would be enough, but it wasn't. So instead of making the same mistake twice. Go get her while you can. Or, just like happened to me, she's going to fall in love with someone else and you'll be left alone. Again" Nala said, pushing him towards her. Tojo planted his paws in the ground to stop himself from being pushed any further.

"I will but I gotta think of something to say first" Tojo said trying to defend himself.

"This is the problem with you boys. You think that you have to have some pickup line or whatever to get a girl. Not true. Simba and I became good friends, and then we kissed one day making us a couple. So stop being such a cub, man up, and go get her" Nala said pushing him all the ways towards Ariya so that he was now in front of her before quickly leaving him.

Ariya heard something stop in front of her and looked up to see that Tojo was looking down at her with a somewhat nervous expression. Ariya felt that nervous feeling in her chest upon seeing who it was, but quickly got herself together and said something before it got awkward.

"Hey" Ariya said, sitting up so that she would be someone eye level with him.

"H-hey" Tojo quickly said back, but studdered a little. Nala was watching from outside the den and lost faith in him the second she heard him stutter. Nala knew that if Tojo stuttered upon saying hello, that when things actually started to get somewhere he would most likely have a nervous breakdown.

"Whatcha need" Ariya said giving him a smile that Tojo nearly drooled at.

"Uh… nothing much just wanted to know if you'd want to talk. Maybe tell me something about your Pride and whatnot" Tojo said. Nala heard what he said and had to admit that it was a lot better than was she had expected him to say.

"Sure, sounds good" Ariya said before sitting up and walking over of the den and to the tip of Pride Rock for some more privacy.

"So what did you want to know" Ariya asked after sitting down on the frozen rock. Tojo hadn't expected to ever make it this far, so had no idea as to what he was going to ask her.

"Umm, anything really. Like do you enjoy it and what not" Tojo asked.

"My family is their and whatnot so of course, I like it, but all my friends are here so it gets boring there. I asked my dad if I could stay here full time and he said he'd think about it" Ariya said.

"Huh" Tojo replied, not know what to say. "So you want to stay here?" Tojo asked, hoping that her answer would be yes so that he would have more time to prepare if Nala stopped pushing him the entire way.

"Yea. I would still visit my family and all that, but I like it here and like I said, all my friends are here" Ariya said looking over a Tojo and saw that he was looking down almost as if he didn't want to make eye contact with her, which she thought was weird.

Tojo looked over at Ariya and saw that she was looking towards him, and the second they made eye contact Tojo dart his eyes back down, which didn't go unnoticed by Ariya.

"You alright Tojo?" Ariya asked. Nala knew what Tojo just did and knew that this was the point where he would probably have a nervous breakdown. The little eye dart thing he did was such an easy mistake to avoid, but he practically set himself up for it.

"Yea" Tojo said looking back over and purposely held eye contact. Ariya knew that something was up with him but didn't want to jump to conclusions just yet. Ariya started to notice his signs and wondered if he may have a crush on her, but thought that she may just be getting worked up over little things that meant nothing, so decided to try and test if he may have one on her.

"So what are you going to be doing tonight?" Ariya asked making it seem like nothing was wrong or odd. Ariya watched as he shifted uncomfortably while trying to come up with an answer.

"Nothing really, what about you?" Tojo said after a second or two.

"Nothing really" Ariya said. Ariya waited to see if he was going to ask her if she wanted to do something with him later that night but saw that he was just nervously looking down at his paws. Ariya was starting to think that he may like her back because if he didn't, he probably wouldn't ask her if she wanted to do something, but then again, he wouldn't be acting so nervous.

"Want to do something together later tonight?" Ariya asked after a few moments of uncomfortable silence.

"S-sure" Tojo said almost instantly.

"Great, meet me here tonight" Ariya said, turning around and walking back inside of Pride Rock to continue her nap. Tojo stood there dumbfounded as he had no idea as to what just happened or what he was going to do next.

"Sounds like you got yourself a date tonight" Nala said with a grin whilst walking up behind him once Ariya had fully gone inside.

"I guess, but what do I do?" Tojo asked having no idea as to how dates worked or what people did on them.

"Do whatever you want. You got this Tojo, you don't need my help. Make her happy and make sure that tonight will be a night that she will never forget" Nala said with a supportive smile. Tojo gave her a slight smile in return, happy and grateful that she was so supportive of him, but he was still nervous and there wasn't much she could do for him about that.

"I'll try. Thanks" Tojo said before sitting up and walking into the den so he could prepare for tonight. Nala stood there for a few moments happy that her plan to get Tojo to stay was working for the meantime, before heading back into the cave as the freezing weather was starting to make her shiver.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Mufasa was walking back towards Pride Rock after a long and freezing day of patrolling the borders and checking on some things throughout the kingdom. Mufasa was cold and tired, so wasn't paying attention or listening to the lion that was walking behind him, not even trying to conceal her presence.

"So what's your next move" Sarafina said after walking behind him for some time without him noticing her. Mufasa turned around to see that Sarafina was behind him with her classic stoic look on her face, and knew that she was talking about Simba and the path to him becoming king.

"My next move is for you to train him to become a king" Mufasa replied before turning back around and continuing on his way back to Pride Rock. Sarafina stood in place for a few moments wondering why he was asking her to train Simba if he was the king.

"Isn't the king supposed to train the future king?" Sarafina replied almost as if she was being snarky or arrogant. Sarafina watched as Mufasa stopped and stood in place for some time, thinking deeply about what she had said.

"I am no king…" Mufasa replied softly, never looking back at her before changing course so that he would be walking through the tall grass to have more privacy.

Sarafina stood their shocked, stunned, speechless. Mufasa had been a poor king even since the death of Sarabi, but he once was a good king. When he said he was no king, he sounded as if he was guilty and sorry for neglecting his responsibilities for so long, and because on that, he was not a true king, but a coward.

Sarafina wanted to go after him and asked what had changed, as he used to not care about what people thought about his efficiency as a king, but she knew that his decision to walk in the tall grass was his way of telling her that he wanted to be alone and left undisturbed.

Sarafina quickly started to run down the path to get to Pride Rock faster than Mufasa so that she could get Simba out and have a serious talk to him about what was going to happen next. Sarafina had no idea as to how she was going to prepare him to be a king, but seeing as Mufasa wasn't up for the task, she was going to have to find a way.

 **I honestly(not) Have no idea as to why this took so long to write. I know it's been a few weeks since my last update, but know that I'm still working on this story and won't stop until I finish it. Any idea and reviews are greatly appreciated as it motivates me to write more and publish them faster. Thanks to anyone who has helped with the story up to this point with supportive reviews and great ideas. With all that said and done, Y'all have a good one! Mr_Toast out!**


	13. Realization

**Simba's Pain Chapter 13**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back Y'all. So I'm going to do a few things so that I can publish these stories faster and not keep you guys waiting for so long. Firstly, I'm going to make them shorter, but they will probably have less detail. Secondly, I'm going to try and find some more time to write because I haven't been able to write anything for almost 5 days now, which is throwing me completely off track. Sorry about all the previous waits and any future waits that might come, but for now, Enjoy!**

Sarafina ran up the hill that led to Pride Rock and went around the corner into the cave, hoping to find Simba inside, but was a little confused when she didn't see him, as there was nearly nothing that could be done in the pride lands due to the cold weather. Sarafina started looking from side to side for him again and then spotted her daughter sleep in her usual spot. Sarafina knew by now that Nala almost always knew where Simba was, which was a little absurd but was useful for times like now.

"Nala" Sarafina said walking up to her daughter and nudging her in the shoulder. Nala woke up to find her mother looking down at her with a someone anxious look. "Where's Simba?" Sarafina asked hoping that Nala would know.

"He's with Tama, but I'm not sure exactly where he is" Nala said getting up, knowing that if her mother was looking for Simba, it had to be important.

"Do you have any idea as to where I can find him?" Sarafina asked quickly with a now frustrated look on her face. Nala noticed her sudden mood change and was now worried that like always, something bad happened and it had to involve Simba.

"Umm… No… But Tama always takes the left path that leads towards the western border, and there are fields there and whatnot so they probably went there" Nala said after thinking for a few moments.

"Help me find him" Sarafina said before turning around and walking out of Pride Rock, leaving Nala behind. Nala quickly caught up to her mother and looked into her eyes to see a look of confusion, anxiety, nervousness, and frustration. Nala really never knew her mother to be any of these, so was now starting to fear that something really bad might have happened.

"What happened" Nala asked no longer being able to contain herself.

"Mufasa is going to let Simba be king but is not going to train him himself, so now we have to find a solution as to how we're going to train him to be king when we have almost no idea as to how to rule a kingdom" Sarafina said picking up the pace as she took the left path.

"Well don't you know how to run a pride and stuff because you're an adult?" Nala asked thinking that Sarafina could do it.

"Just because I'm an adult and understand a pride doesn't mean I know how to keep order and peace between animals in a kingdom" Sarafina replied. Nala hadn't really even thought of how hard or stressful it could be to run a kingdom, but now it was starting to hit her.

"I'm sure we'll figure something out" Nala said trying to motivate her mother. Sarafina was glad to see that Nala was trying to make her feel better about the situation, and even though it wasn't working, it was the gesture that counted.

Sarafina focused back ahead of them and saw that the paw prints in the dirt were starting to get fresher, telling her that they were getting close. Sarafina tried to listen for anything and heard what sounded like rusting in the grass towards their right. Sarafina quickly came to a stop, and Nala almost ran right past her but was able to stop in time before wondering why her mother had stopped.

"Simba!" Sarafina called out loudly, and in an almost commanding voice. Sarafina heard the rustling stop, and the sounds of something coming her way. Seconds later, Simba exited the tall grass and onto the trail in front of them, with Tama following him.

"Simba" Sarafina said quickly walking up to him to tell him what was going on. "Look. Your father is letting you be king, but the problem is he won't teach you himself, which means we're going to have to find a way to teach you to be a king when we are a little unsure how to" Sarafina said bluntly, not trying to coddle him or ease him into situation.

"Uhh…" Simba started but had no idea how to really respond. He was surprised but wondered what he was supposed to do or say back. "Ok" Simba finally replied after a few seconds in an unsure tone.

Sarafina knew that Simba wouldn't understand, but all he had to know was what was going on. "Good. I'm going to look around for what we can do. For the meantime, just… do whatever" Sarafina said before walking away not really having the time to think of what he should do.

Simba stood where he was, still looking at the spot that Sarafina had just occupied, before looking over towards Nala and Tama to see them looking back at him with confusion and concern. Simba knew that they were probably waiting for him to do something, but he was kind of unsure of what he was supposed to do.

Simba gave them a little shrug before turning around and walking down the path. Simba wasn't surprised when he heard the sound of dirt being dug up behind him when both Nala and Tama bolted towards him, and a few seconds later were next to him.

"Where are you going?" Nala asked.

"Uh…" Simba started having no idea as to where he was really going, only knowing that he was just going to follow the path until he thought of something. "Straight?" Simba said with a small chuckle.

"Look, I know this is probably a lot to take in but if you need help just know that-" "I'm fine" Simba said, cutting Nala off before she finished her sentence. Nala was a little surprised by this. Not that he cut her off, but the tone in which he did so. He sounded annoyed and angry as if she was doing something to irritate him.

"I'll be fine. We're just going to have to play this by ear and wait until your mother comes up with something" Simba said after a few seconds.

Nala sped up just a little and moved over slightly and placed a playful kiss on his cheek. Simba looked back over at her with a little smile, and Nala was relieved to see that he was actually ok. One of Nala's tricks to telling if he was ok or not was to give him a little kiss, and if he made the situation all deep and emotional, he wasn't ok, but if he acted playful and happy, it told her that he was ok.

"I just want to make sure that you're going to be ok" Nala said nuzzling into his shoulder. Nala was about to exit and pull away from him until she felt something wet on his shoulder. Nala backed up a little and saw that he had a cut on the inside of his arm that looked to be bleeding.

"When did that happen?" Nala asked, gesturing towards the cut on his arm. Simba came to a spot and looked towards the area that Nala had motioned to, and found the cut she was talking about.

"Oh, Uh, probably like fifteen minutes ago. Or at least I think" Simba said after a moment. Tama stepped around in front of Simba and saw what the cut on his arm looked like, and wondered why he didn't say anything about it when it happened.

"How'd that happen?" Tama asked not being able to remember when Simba cut himself. She knew that it wasn't there when they left Pride Rock, so she knew he had to have gotten it recently.

"When you flipped me over one time I landed weirdly on a rock and it cut the inside of my arm. It doesn't hurt and it really isn't that big so I decided it wasn't worth telling you…" Simba said but then realized towards the end of his sentence that Tama was probably going to be either mad or irritated at him for keeping something like this a secret.

"Well, I kinda need to know these things in case it becomes a problem" Tama said watching as a drop of blood ran down the back of his arm and landed in the dirt. Tama turned away and felt a heavy feeling in her stomach upon seeing that. It wasn't that she didn't like the sight of blood, but she didn't like the sight of his blood.

"Sorry" Simba said before looking down at Nala who was watching him from the side.

"Anyway…" Nala said taking one last look at the cut and coming to a conclusion that it would close on its own. "What did you two do besides freeze your tails off out here?" Nala asked not seeing many things you could do because of the cold weather.

"Well we were going to go to a cave and just talk, but we got sidetracked when Tama wanted to teach me games you used to play when you were younger" Simba said looking in the direction of the cave.

Nala had no idea where the cave he was talking about was, as Pride Rock was the only real cave she knew that was big enough for two lions to fit in. There were tunnels that led underground, but those didn't really count as 'caves'.

"Over there" Simba said pointing towards a hill in the distant. Nala walked past him and looked at the hill he was pointing towards. Nala looked over the hill for a few seconds before finally being able to see the cave, which was hidden really well.

"Never been there before" Nala said walking towards the cave wanting to check it out. Simba started to follow Nala and Tama started to follow Simba, but secretly not wanting to go back to that place.

After a few minutes of walking, Nala started to walk up the hill and stopped just short of the cave. Nala looked around and saw that the surrounding ground and rock made this cave nearly impossible to see from any angle than the one she had just been standing at. Nala took a step forward but quickly sidestepped as she saw something sticking out of the ground.

Nala looked down at the ground and saw a pointy rock sticking out of the ground that looked to be rather sharp. Nala knew that this would do damage to just about whatever landed on it.

Simba and Tama made it up to the top and saw Nala looking at a sharp rock. Simba thought nothing of it, but Tama knew exactly what that was. It was the rock that impaled Simba when he took the fall for her. It was in the right spot and the only thing around capable of creating the wound he had.

Tama started to look around and the location was just as it was in her nightmares. Tama looked back towards Simba and Nala and saw that Simba was running his paw over the rock, trying to feel how sharp it was, and Tama went into freakout mode.

Simba was running his paw over the rock, feeling the point and the edge when something quickly swatted his paw away. Simba looked over to see that Tama had come up behind him and swatted his paw away and looked to be distressed.

"Don't touch that thing" Tama said giving the rock a fearful look. Simba had no idea as to what was wrong with Tama or why she was acting so scared of a rock, but knew that it probably had something to do with what happened the last time they were here.

"Sorry" Simba said giving her a slight smile before walking inside the cave. Nala followed Simba in but Tama stayed where she was. Tama gave the rock an almost dirty, or hateful look before walking back inside, hating it for something that it had no control over.

"Wow" Nala said, realizing that this cave was a lot bigger than it looked like from the outside. You could probably have fitted anywhere from five to six lions inside without it getting cramped.

"Yea, it's a pretty cool private place that almost no one knows about" Simba said looking around before turning back towards Nala and Tama.

"We should come here more often" Nala said liking how it was big enough, warm enough, and private enough to where almost no one would bother them. Simba didn't really care, except Tama still didn't like this place, and she was starting to make it more noticeable by the second.

Simba was watching Nala look around and explore the cave when he felt Tama press into his shoulder and start to move in closer as if she were trying to hide from something. Simba looked down towards Tama and saw that she was looking around the place with a nervous and uneasy look, and Simba knew that something was definitely bugging her now.

"What's wrong" Simba said sitting down. Tama sat down next to him and looked over at him thinking about what she was going to say.

"I don't like this place. It's just… It holds bad memories" Tama said after a few seconds. Nala turned around after hearing what Tama said to see that she looked uneasy and almost spooked.

"Yea, but that doesn't make it a bad place" Simba said trying to make it not seem so bad. Tama turned around and looked down at the mark just to the side of where his lung would be, and ran her paw over it. Nala walked up beside them and watched as Tama ran her paw over the scar Simba got during the storm. Nala then realized that this is the cave they must have taken shelter in and that's why Tama didn't like this place. Simba almost died in it.

"Is this the cave where you guys took shelter in?" Nala asked as she looked at the scar on his chest and could have only wondered how he could have gotten it if they were inside the cave.

"Yea" Simba said after a few seconds of looking down at Tama. Simba knew that Tama was seen as more of the aggressive and less understanding type, but he had never seen her act that way before, or at least seen her act that way for a long period of time. Simba knew that it had something to do with her trusting him so much, but he almost thought that it was weird that she was known as aggressive since every time he was with her, she was always caring and understanding, and right now she was acting a little scared, which wasn't living up to her reputation that the others give her.

"Well, what other cool places do you know around the pride lands?" Nala asked after a few seconds of watching Tama look distressed, and knew that she would get better once she was out of this place.

"Uh, well what would you consider 'cool'" Simba asked not really knowing what she meant by that.

"Places that stand out. Have features that make them different than everywhere else… uh… or just places that are special to you" Nala said not really knowing exactly what she was trying to say.

Nala watched as Simba broke eye contact and looked passed her as he thought. Nala looked into his eyes and was almost able to see the amount of thinking he was doing just through his eyes.

"Well, there are a few" Simba said getting up once he saw Nala stand up. Tama was broken from her thoughts when she felt Simba move and soon realized that he was starting to walk out the cave with Nala beside him. Tama didn't really care where they were going, all she was happy about was that they were leaving this cave.

"So where are they?" Nala asked feeling excited. It had been a while since she was young and was exploring new parts of the pride lands for the first time, so it was almost like reliving a moment from her cubhood.

"Uh… well…" Simba said slowing down to a stop while he thought of something to say. Nala was confused by this as it wasn't like Simba to forget where something was. "Oh yeah, it's this way" Simba lied as he turned around, but Nala stopped him before he could continue walking.

"You're lying" Nala said with a small smile. Nala watched as Simba tried to come up with some excuse and knew that she was right.

"Eh well… there is something that way… but… Look, It's dumb and not that Important. Besides, there's really nothing all the different about the area than the rest of the pride lands" Simba said not wanting to take them there out of embarrassment.

"Simba, if you're going to lie, at least make sure it makes sense before you say it" Tama said also being able to tell that he was lying and trying to hide something.

"Look, all that is over there is just a small little clearing that I used to go to when I was younger" Simba said trying to walk away but Nala gently held him in place.

"What did you do there" Nala asked with a playful grin, knowing that he was probably embarrassed by what he used to do there, and that was the reason he was hiding from it.

Simba went to speak, but something beat him to it. "The truth, Simba" A voice in his head said. Simba mentally sighed as he knew that he couldn't disobey his mother, even though there was nothing that she could do if he did.

"I uh… Well… Fine. So basically you guys used to know that I talked to myself pretending to be different people and what not" Simba started, and the silliness of the mood was killed as the two lionesses realized that this was probably something serious. "Well I… I tried to play some of the games I oversaw you guys playing when we were younger, but the problem was that every single game you guys played involved multiple people, and I only have one person, me, so I kinda had to do dumb things to make it work. I was just being a lonely, dumb, pathetic, sad, and weird person looking for something to do" Simba said revealing why he didn't want to go there and trying to justify why he seemed to be so weird.

Both Nala and Tama stood there not really knowing what to say back as they hadn't really expected it to be something like that, or for him to be so hard on himself.

"I uh… Didn't mean for it to get personal or anything… Sorry about that" Tama said after a few seconds of silence went by. "But… I would say you were being more creative than anything else. Finding a way to change a two player game to make it a single player game is, Impressive" Tama said wanting to try and motivate him to not look down on himself.

"Thanks" Simba said, before walking past Nala as she didn't try and hold him back anymore. Nala was snapped out of her thoughts when Simba walked by her and went to catch up.

"So uh… Where ya going?" Nala asked wanting to make sure he was still in a good mood.

"There's this waterfall that's hidden behind some rocks, and the only way to see it from a distance is from the Outlands, so almost no one knows about it" Simba replied sounding fine. Nala had never seen a waterfall before, so she could only try and imagine what it had to look like by what her mother had told her about them.

"Where is it" Nala asked, not wanting to have to walk a long distance in the cold weather.

"Other side of the pride lands" Simba replied. Nala wanted to be able to see it, but there was no way that she was going to hike across the pride lands freezing her tail off to see some waterfall.

"Um… a little too far for my liking" Nala said trying not to sound as if she was entitled, lazy, or brattish.

"It's fine" Simba said before turning around and walking in the direction of Pride Rock. As always, Nala and Tama began to follow Simba as if he was their leader. Tama and Nala could tell that he was heading back to Pride Rock, and the idea of having to spend yet another day cooped up in there was starting to settle in.

"So how do you think I'll learn to become a king?" Simba asked after a few seconds of silence. The idea had slipped the two girls minds completely and neither one was sure of how they were going to do it.

"Um… well… Someone had to be the first king of somewhere, and they didn't have anyone to teach them how to rule a kingdom, so it can't be completely impossible" Tama said after a few seconds trying to think of something to say.

"Yea, but I would think that they would have been a bad leader and the kings that would come after them would learn from his mistake. Or he would have had to learn from his own mistake along that way" Simba said not really seeing it all that possible that someone could do something like ruling a kingdom perfectly on their first try.

"I'm sure we can think of something" Nala said trying to cheer everyone up. "Wait a minute… what about Rafiki! Surely he will know something about running a kingdom" Nala said once the idea hit her. Everyone took a moment to think about it, and while it did seem like a good idea, Rafiki was wise and whatnot, but that really didn't guarantee he knew the ropes of a kingdom.

"It's worth a shot, but let's wait until your mother has had time to come up with something first" Simba said.

 _"Simba"_

Simba began to slow down just a little to look around for whoever just said his name but quickly sped back up once he realized who it was.

 _"Yea?" Simba replied back wondering what his mother wanted._

 _"I know this will be hard, but you must address this matter with your father. The only one who is capable of teaching you to be a king is Mufasa. He may seem like a lazy and careless king, but he was once a strong and determined king. I know he still has it in him, and I know you have it in you" Sarabi said knowing that Simba would have trouble talking with Mufasa._

 _"He hates me, I don't think he will listen" Simba said knowing that his father wants nothing to do with him._

 _"He doesn't hate you. He is lost, and what is lost can always be found" Sarabi said._

 _"What would I say?" Simba asked having no idea as to how he would start a conversation with his father._

 _"Speak of me. Ask him, What would I want" Sarabi said. "Good luck" Sarabi said._

Simba knew that that was her way of saying goodbye and that the rest was up to him.

 _"They're calling you"_

Simba heard this and was a little surprised. He was sure that his mother was done talking to him and wondered who was calling him.

"Simba… Simba… Simba!" "Why isn't he responding?" "I don't know he's your boyfriend. Does he normally do this?" "No"

Simba heard what sounded like a conversation going on and was snapped out of his trance.

"...well he's clearly-" Tama started, but stopped when she realized that Simba was now looking towards them.

"Simba what was that" Tama asked wondering why he wasn't responding to them for almost a solid minute.

"What was what?" Simba asked having no idea as to what they were talking about.

"Are you ok?" Nala asked wondering what was going on with him.

"We were calling your name but you wouldn't respond" Tama quickly followed up.

"Oh, that, sorry about that, I was just thinking about what we could do" Simba said trying to make up an excuse.

"It's fine, just pay a little more attention next time" Nala said still confused as to how he didn't hear them, and how this was exactly what he did that one afternoon after his second trial, she kept calling him but he wouldn't respond.

The three continued walking towards Pride Rock in silence with neither of them trying to strike up a conversation. They continued to walk towards Pride Rock without incident until they began to walk down a somewhat steep hill.

Simba was currently thinking about what his mother had told him and wasn't paying attention to what was in front of him and ended up stepping on a rock that was lying in the dirt that gave way, causing him to trip and fall down the hill. Simba landed at the bottom of the hill awkwardly on his side and felt a sharp pain in his side. Simba slowly stood up but found it hard not to buckle under the pain he felt in his side.

Tama and Nala sprinted down the hill and too his side the second they watched him fall, knowing that he had hurt himself by the way he was having trouble standing.

"You ok?" Nala asked leaning down to be eye level with Simba. Tama started to frantically check him over making sure that he wasn't sporting some life-threatening injury like the last time he fell down a hill.

"Yea, just knocked the wind out of me" Simba said after finally regaining his breath. Once Tama was done making sure he was ok, she walked back around him and helped him up.

"Come on, let's head back" Simba said with a slight chuckle trying to make them see that he was ok and that it was only a mistake.

The three continued walking towards Pride Rock, which was only a few hundred feet away at this point, but Simba noticed how Nala and Tama were pressed up to him as if they were supporting him as he walked.

Nala was on his left and Tama was to his right, only a few inches away from him as if they were ready to catch him, again. Simba knew they would give him grief for this, but he wanted to know just how 'ready' they were.

Simba suddenly pretended to fall, and as he predicted, both Nala and Tama moved in quickly and prevent him from falling, but he stood back up quickly, and both of them brought him to a halt.

"Sorry, I'm just… uh… a little tired and this issue with me learning how to become king is just making a little clumsy" Simba said quickly after he felt them stop him, knowing that they weren't going to be happy with him.

Both Tama and Nala gave Simba a somewhat irritated look but decided to drop it as it was not worth the fuss, and them getting on him about it would only put him under even more stress. Both of them knew that something was up with him and that this new problem was bugging him a lot more than the previous and more serious problems did, but neither of them could say that he was lying, as he was always under a lot of stress.

The three walked up the hill that led to Pride Rock and entered the cave to find Sarafina storming out of the cave with a frustrated look. All three of them knew that something had pissed her off, but none of them dared to ask her what and have her turn her anger towards them.

Tama and Nala left Simba's side and went over to where the others were talking and sat down. Simba looked around the cave and saw his father walking out of the cave from the side, and remembered what his mother asked him to do. Simba was nervous but knew that if he was going to have to confront his father if he ever wanted to learn how to be king.

Simba followed his father out of the cave, down the hill, and started to follow him down the path. Simba was about to call out to get his attention when he realized that he had no idea as to what he was supposed to call him. 'Father' didn't seem right, as it would probably anger him, and he didn't really see him as a father. 'Sir' or 'King' would seem weird as well, as he's his father. They both contradicted each other.

"Umm… dad?" Simba said cringing once he said 'dad'. Simba didn't know what else to call his father, so he just decided to wing it and hope it wouldn't be a problem. Simba watched as Mufasa stopped, but he didn't turn around, he stood in place while facing forward.

"Yes" Mufasa replied while turning around, sounding serious and authoritative as always. Mufasa looked at his son who was a few yards away from him and could tell that he was nervous. He wondered what Simba wanted from him because Simba had never approached him like this in months.

"Um… well… I've just been wondering if me becoming king is, well… uh… what mom would have wanted…" Simba said knowing that he could be digging his own grave with those words. Simba had no idea as to how much of a touchy topic Sarabi was with Mufasa, and the only way he was going to find out was to start testing the limits.

Mufasa was taken back by this, not because Simba spoke of his mother, but because Mufasa had never thought of what Sarabi would have wanted. Mufasa started to think about what Sarabi would have wanted for Simba, and the horrid picture of his mistakes started to paint itself. Mufasa started to realize that everything he had ever done to Simba, was something that Sarabi would have hated him for. Realizing this all at once was almost too much for Mufasa to take in at once, and nearly collapsed a few time. Mufasa knew that he had to do something to fix this, and was just starting to realize this now. How could he fix something like this? The only thing he has left of Sarabi is the one thing he has neglected and hated for the past year.

Something was different now. Mufasa was starting to realize his own mistakes and knew that it was his fault for everything. Mufasa realized that he wasn't the only one who lost Sarabi that day. Simba did, Sarafina did, Rafiki did… everyone in the pride lands did. He was so selfish and stupid that he honestly believed that he was the only one suffering from her death.

Mufasa snapped back into reality horrified. He looked towards Simba again to see that he was waiting there with an uncertain look on his face. "Sarabi would have wanted nothing more than for you to be king, Simba. She would have been beyond proud. Which is why I am decided to teach you myself. And… I'm sorry, that she isn't around anymore… son" Mufasa said before turning back around and walking away.

Simba stood in place unable to comprehend what had just happened. 'Son'. Simba couldn't remember a time when he heard his father say the word 'son'. And Simba couldn't understand why his father was deciding to help him all of a sudden after Sarafinatold him that he wouldn't be teaching him.

Simba looked towards his fathers striking figure, wanting to go after him and ask him questions that shouldn't be asked, such as why he was deciding to teach him, why he called him son, and other questions related to that but Simba knew better than to push his luck. Simba turned around and started aimlessly walking into the pride lands, wondering and thinking about why his father did those two strange things.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Sarafina was looking down into the waterhole with a defeated look. Everything she could think of had some flaw or some kink that made it to where it couldn't be an option. Sarafina had spent that past hour or so thinking non-stop on how she was going to get Simba the proper training he needed in order to be a king when a sound behind her broke her thoughts.

Sarafina turned around to see a frantic Mufasa approaching her in a somewhat quick manner. Sarafina thought this weird as Mufasa rarely cared what happened and always kept to himself, so for him to be frantic and to approach her was out of the ordinary.

"Yes?" Sarafina said once Mufasa stopped next to her. Sarafina looked into his eyes and saw something that she hadn't seen in a long time. It looked like… his old self. The Mufasa she knew before Sarabi died. That hallowed out dark look was gone and his 'normal' protective and secure look had taken its place.

"I…" Mufasa started, but couldn't put into words what was going through his mind. "What have I done…" Mufasa said as he slumped over. Sarafina felt little to no pity or remorse for Mufasa, as he had been nothing but cruel and terrible towards Simba his entire life, so she didn't really care what he had gotten himself into, but at the same time, he was acting strange.

"I've… This can't be fixed" Mufasa said before starting to quietly sob to himself. Now, Sarafina was worried. Mufasa never, Never, Cried. No matter what, he remained strong and didn't let his emotions affect his actions… or at least he used to be that way. And what couldn't be fixed?

"Mufasa, What's wrong" Sarafina asked in a plain tone, showing little compassion towards his current state. Whether it seemed wrong or not, Sarafina felt like he deserved every little bit of what he was going through, although she had no idea exactly what he was going through.

"I… I've lost him… I've lost her… I've lost everyone… and I… could have prevented most of it if not all of it…" Mufasa said getting control of his emotions once again. Sarafina was left with more questions than before. Who was he, who was she, why and how are they lost, and how could he have prevented it?

"Who Mufasa?" Sarafina said, still trying to not feel sorry for him.

"Simba, Sarabi, everyone" Mufasa said before sitting back up and turning towards Sarafina. "I… When Sarab died I… this… I could have raised Simba to be the son Sarabi wanted. I could have given him the love and attention she would have… but I blamed him" Mufasa said before starting to cry a little. "I… I was lost… I didn't know who I was anymore. I didn't even stop to think about what Sarabi would have wanted… and because of that… there both dead now" Mufasa said before slumping back down.

Sarafina then realized that this was the moment that she had been praying for to happen. Mufasa realizing his mistakes and realizing that he needed to do something… but what made no sense was that Simba was still alive.

"Simba… is still alive…" Sarafina said, before getting a horrid idea. What if Mufasa… killed Simba out of hate and anger and that's what it took for him to realize what he had done. What if Simba really was dead.

"Impossible. He was just a cub… and I left him. No cub could have survived their first day all alone and vulnerable" Mufasa said knowing that Simba died not a few hours after birth.

Sarafina then got a crazy idea, but just maybe it could be possible. "Mufasa" Sarafina said, getting the broken King's attention. "What happened yesterday?" Sarafina asked wanting to know if what she was thinking could possibly be true.

"Sa…" Mufasa started but had to swallow a lump in his throat. "Sarabi… died… and Simba along with her. I abandoned them... both" Mufasa ended.

Sarafina then realized that the impossible… was possible. It was crazy to think, and even Sarafina herself would deem a person crazy if they proposed such an idea, but this was the 'old' Mufasa. When Sarabi died, the old one fell, and the newer, colder, and darker Mufasa took its place. Now, something resurrected the old Mufasa, and he must not have remembered anything he had done past the day of Sarabi's death.

"Mufasa…. Sarabi died over a year ago. Simba just turned one year old. I gave birth to Nala around a year ago as well. I even have a second cub, Mheetu, who is six months old. Chumvi, Tojo, Malka, Tama, and Kula were all born a year ago. This all happened a year ago. Do you remember nothing?" Sarafina said.

Mufasa looked at her like she was crazy, but when he looked down, she was no longer pregnant either, and now that he thought about it, she did look a little older.

"My son… is alive?" Mufasa said sitting back up as if he was excited.

"Yes… but…" Sarafina started but had no idea as to how she was going to tell him this next part. "But… you neglected him… blamed him for Sarabi's death… He doesn't see you as a father, and I'm afraid he may never see you as one" Sarafina said.

"Impossible, I would never do such a thing" Mufasa said raising his voice, offended that Sarafina would accuse him of such a thing.

"You changed. You no longer talked to people. You… you did even attend Sarabi's death ceremony" Sarafina said, and Mufasa wore a look of horror. "You blamed Simba for Sarabi's death and neglected him because of it. I took care of him. Protected him. I did everything for him" Sarafina said starting to feel her hate build up, but let it die down as this Mufasa was clearly different.

"No. I refuse to believe such a thing" Mufasa said.

"Whether you want to believe it or not, that's what happened" Sarafina said feeling horrible for Mufasa at this point. She could never imagine waking up from a nightmare, to find herself in an even worse one. Knowing that her cub hated her and would never see her as a mother.

"No…" Mufasa said as the memories of his dark days started to flood his head. "No!" Mufasa said slamming his paws down onto the rock hard frozen ground. "I… I don't… I couldn't have… But I did…" Mufasa said as this was far too much to take it at once.

"Why… now?" Sarafina asked wondering what took so long, or what made him snapped out of his darker self and return to his old self.

"What?" Mufasa asked too confused to make sense of anything.

"What are you changing all of a sudden. What caused you to… remember… and start to care once again?" Sarafina asked having no idea as to what could have possibly made Mufasa change so suddenly.

"I'm… I was walking, I don't know where to or why, but…" Mufasa started but died off as he tried to remember what happened. Mufasa then remembered Simba, His son, who was alive, walking up to him and asking him what Sarabi would have wanted. "Simba approached me and asked me if Sarabi would have been proud if he were to become king, and then it hit me. I started to feel alive again and then everything started to come back" Mufasa said not knowing how to describe what had happened to him. "That's when I realized… There was no going back from what I did" Mufasa said making no sense.

Sarafina was having a lot of trouble understanding this whole thing. It was as if he remembered only certain parts and events were starting to pop up in his head out of order. First, he remembers nothing, then remembers the torment he showed Simba after she told him, but now he was saying that he remembered the torment, or at least part of it, after he said he had forgotten and her having to explain him. It just didn't make sense.

"Mufasa. A lot has changed since Sarabis death. The pride and the pride lands are still healthy, but you did neglect Simba and because of that… he's well… different" Sarafina said trying to be gentle, but it was hard to be gentle with such a topic.

"I know. I remember now. I remember everything. All the times I pushed him away. All the times I blamed him for something that no one had control over. Believing that I was doing the right thing. I am a monster. I'm no king… I'm no father…" Mufasa said remember everything that had happened at this point.

Sarafina looked over at him and saw that he looked depressed and broken. Sarafina couldn't imagine the pain he must have felt. This was the Mufasa she had known when they were both cubs, and up to the death of her best friend, so she knew well enough that Mufasa would be destroyed by something like this, and he was.

"Mufasa, there's nothing you can do about the past. What's done is done. But what you can do is try to fix this while you still have the chance" Sarafina said hoping that he would at least try and fix his relationship with his son and that one day maybe they could see each other as father and son, but that looked to be far fetched as of now.

"How? Do you think he'd forgive me for what I've done? Blaming him and making him believe that he killed his own mother? Neglecting him and denying him his birthright? How could anyone ever forgive someone for such things?" Mufasa said seeing no hope in being able to get his son to see him as a father, or at least a friend.

"It won't be easy, and it won't be quick, but maybe with time, we can fix this" Sarafina said.

"I don't even know him Sarafina. I know nothing about him. I never wanted him around and always ignored him when he was. How could I possibly try and recover a relationship we never had?" Mufasa said defeated.

"You'll try, and if he doesn't accept your apology or your new feelings, then all you can do is train him to be a king and leave. It's the least you can do" Sarafina said.

Mufasa looked back down and knew that she was right. Even if Simba didn't want to accept him as a father or a friend, he at least owed it to him to teach him to be a king.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was lying down alone in his usual corner of Pride Rock, wondering why his father would call him son. Simba wished he could have a father-son relationship with Mufasa, but Mufasa would never see him as a son, or at least he never used to.

Simba was broken from his thoughts as he saw his father and Sarafina enter Pride Rock and start heading towards him. Simba was now starting to wonder if something was wrong with his father as he never approached him, or at least never did unless it was about the trials.

"Simba, your father wishes to speak to you" Sarafina said, stepping aside so Mufasa and Simba would be looking directly at each other. Seeing as Mufasa was the king, Simba didn't really have a choice, and he also wanted to hear what his father had to say.

Mufasa turned around and started to head out of Pride Rock for more privacy, and Simba got up and started to follow him. Tama was resting near the front of Pride Rock and opened her eyes once she saw a shadow block the dim light of the sun, to see that Mufasa and Simba were walking out of Pride Rock. Tama knew that it was none of her business, but she wanted to know what was up.

Tama slowly and cautiously got up and started to follow them outside the cave, trying to conceal her presences. Tama followed them down the hill where they stopped, and Tama took cover behind a rock. Tama knew that she was eavesdropping and could get in trouble for it, but her desire to find out what was going on was worth more than risk she was taking.

"Simba…" Mufasa started but died off not knowing what to say. Mufasa knew that just a simple 'I'm sorry" would do nothing but anger him. Mufasa had no idea as to how he was going to convince Simba that he was sorry for what he did and that he only wanted to make up for his actions. "Um… Look… I know I've done many terrible things… and that I took my anger and sorrow for your mother out on you, but… I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the times I neglected you. All the times I made your life hell. I'm sorry I blamed you for the death of your mother. I thought I was the only one who lost her that day, but now I come to realize that you lost her as well and that you're the only one I have left. I know you probably hate me, and I don't blame you. I know that you might feel angry about this apology, but just know that… that… I do love you, a lot. I can't undo the things I've done, and I can't bring back your mother, but what I can do and will do is to try and make this up to you in any way I can, If you want. If you hate me and never want to see or hear of me again, then I will leave" Mufasa said not being able to look his son in the eyes.

Simba stood there dumbstruck. The one thing he had never thought of being possible was for his father to apologize or even show sympathy for the things he did, but now he was apologizing from the bottom of his heart and even going as far as saying he would do anything to make up for what he did.

"Really?" Simba asked not daring to get his hopes up before he knew if this was real or fake.

"Yes" Mufasa said fearing that that 'really' was the gates of hell opening and that Simba was enraged by his apology.

"Wha… but… you…" Simba said not even being able to process anything right now. Simba was so confused about how he should feel. One thing he has always wondered was what would he do if his father actually apologized, but the idea of his father apologizing in the first place was crazy so he never really gave it much thought. Simba wanted to accept his father's apology but almost felt like that was way too easy. That they would just become best friends and what not. That didn't really seem right or possible.

"I… I don't want you to leave, or have to suffer in any way. I just kinda wish we could pretend the past never happened, but I don't think that's possible. I'm… I'm not mad at you… but… at the same time, I just can't…" Simba said but died after not being able to find the right words.

"Forgive you" Mufasa said, finishing his sentence with what he was expecting his to say.

"No… I just can't… imagine you as a father no offense. You've just always been… so… I don't know. We've just never gotten along before and we are always avoiding each other, so it seems weird that we could ever be… family" Simba said wanting to start anew with his father, but not being able to actually imagine what a relationship with his father would be like.

"I understand" Mufasa said knowing that Simba wouldn't give him a second chance. If he were in his place he wouldn't have given himself a second chance.

"Where do we start?" Simba asked not knowing how he was going to create a relationship with a father he never had when he was a cub.

"What?" Mufasa asked confused by what Simba had said. If he understood Simba correctly, he wasn't mad at him, but he didn't want him to be his father.

"How are we going to start a relationship between us?" Simba asked making it more clear this time.

"You… still, want me around?" Mufasa asked both surprised and confused. Mufasa had no idea as to how Simba could still possible want him around after all the things he did.

"Well, yea. You're my father, I can't just pretend that this never happened and that you don't exist. We both loss mom, so all we have is each other. Or… I'm hoping that this is what mom would want of us both" Simba said.

Mufasa had no response to what Simba had said. Simba still wanted him around and was giving him a second chance to be the father he never was. He was still willing to work something out to where they both would find some sort of peace at the end.

"Thank you" Mufasa said, surprised that his apology was accepted and that Simba forgave him so easily.

Tama watched from behind the rock with anger and confusion. She had no idea how Simba could be so sympathetic towards that monster. He destroyed his life, took away everything that he could, blamed him for his mother's death, and then gives him so stupid sob story of an apology where he tries to act so selfless by saying all the things about how he deserves whatever comes his way and all that other bullshit. Tama decided that enough was enough and she was going to have to explain to Simba that what he was doing was wrong. Tama got up and went to climb over the rock, but something held her back. Tama turned around startled to find that Sarafina had come up behind her at some point and was looking at her.

"It's his choice, not yours" Sarafina said knowing exactly what Tama was about to do.

"He's a monster. I hate him, and you should to" Tama said wondering how Sarafina could possible take Simba's side on forgiving his father.

"Tama. Mufasa just had everything taken from him that he could have possibly cared about, and now he has gotten back one of the only things he has left. His son. If you take that away from him, then what?" Sarafina said painting the picture for Tama.

Tama thought about what she had said and was a little confused but knew that if he was left with nothing, there would be no king and no order for the pride. "Still, I don't trust him" Tama said.

"You don't have to. But until Simba becomes king, you better learn to deal with it" Sarafina said in an angry tone.

"I won't let that monster hurt the man I love" Tama said, and then froze once she realized what she had just said. Tama and Simba promised to tell no one of their brother-sister relationships, and Tama had just broken that promise.

"You're in love, Tama, I get that. And because of that, you want to protect him. But don't let love blind you. This is his choice, not yours" Sarafina said calming Tama. Tama resisted for just a little longer, before finally giving up. Tama let Sarafina win this one, but she would make sure that Mufasa didn't try and hurt Simba.

Tama looked back over to see that Mufasa and Simba had ended their conversation and that Simba was walking back into Pride Rock, while Mufasa was walking away towards the pride lands. Tama sighed after realized that she had missed the entire ending of their conversation.

"Don't worry, all the said was that they'd play this by ear and try to not make it all weird" Sarafina said after noticing Tama's state. Tama gave Sarafina a little nod before turning around and heading back inside of Pride Rock.

"Oh, Tama, one more thing" Sarafina said getting Tamas attention. "Try to keep your little secret a secret" Sarafina said, before turning around and going after Mufasa.

Tama stood there and thought for a second before she realized what she meant. Tama didn't know how she let something like that slip so easily, and it concerned her. Tama started to worry that she might slip around Nala and ruin her relationship with her best friend. Tama sighed once again before heading back inside to have a little chat with Simba.

 **Amazing ending if I do say so myself. Anyway, hope Y'all enjoyed this chapter, had a lot of fun writing it and Man! Did Mufasa change? I know it seemed way too easy and sudden, but hey, like I said I'm planning to make this like 15-20 chapters, so there's still time for shit to go wrong so don't worry. But all jokes and whatnot aside, tell me if you guys enjoyed this chapter as it is a huge part of the story and basically sets up the next stage in this story. Hope to hear some feedback for you guys and that's all from me. With all that said, Mr_Toast out!**


	14. Kissing

**Simba's Pain Chapter 14**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back, everybody. When I first started to write this story I thought that it would be just a little one shot and then I would move on, but you guys just keep giving amazing feedback and such positive reviews, so I thank all of you for that. I will be making a list of everyone who either gave amazing feedback or always sent in PM or review on how much they loved the story on the final chapter if there really ever is one. Now, I said I wanted to make this story 15-20 chapters, but I've gotten over 9 PM's and Reviews asking me to make an 'ending', and then continue the story on because you guys want to see where their lives will go, so I'm removing the chapter limit and I'll just keep writing until there's nothing left to write about. Also, just going to forwarn you, there is more and stronger language in this chapter, so don't say I didn't warn you. With all that said and done, Enjoy!**

Tama walked up the hill and into Pride Rock to find Simba looking around the place like he was lost. Tama had let her anger die down a little but she was still a little irritated that Simba would just forgive Mufasa so easily. Tama new that it was his decision, so she wasn't going to try and stop him or anything, but she was at least going to warn him.

"Simba" Tama said as she finally got over to him.

"Yea?" Simba said turning around, still trying to wrap his head around what had just happened.

"Can we take a walk?" Tama asked in a tone that made her question sound more like a command than a request. Simba heard her tone and knew that she must have found out about his father changing and what not, or else she would probably be in a much better mood.

"Is it about my father?" Simba asked having a good idea that she must have been listening in on their conversation, not that he cared.

"Yea" Tama said. Simba could already tell where this was going to go and knew that he wouldn't be able to avoid this forever, so decided that he would try and explain why he was forgiving Mufasa so easily.

"Sure, But Nala's coming" Simba responded, knowing that Nala would want to hear about this and would also probably be unsettled by it. Tama nodded at Simba before turning around and walking out of the cave and stopped, waiting for Simba.

Simba turned around and found Nala who was talking with Kula on the opposite side of the cave. Simba started to walk towards her, hating the fact that he was probably going to kill her mood, and even may ruin her day, but this was something that she needed to know about.

Nala saw that Simba was approaching her, gave him a smile, and was about to say something but he beat her to it. "We need to talk, Now" Simba said in a somewhat worried voice, before walking out of the cave and stopping where Tama was. The smile on Nala's face was killed when he said this and she quickly got up to follow him but noticed that Kula was starting to follow her as well.

"Can I come?" Kula asked wanting to know why Simba sounded a little worried. Also the way he worded his sentence made it sound like something was seriously wrong. Nala thought about it and knew that she couldn't really say no, as she had no idea about what Simba wanted to talk about, so it was really his call.

"Simba, Kula wants to know if she can come" Nala said once she walking up to Simba and gave him a little nuzzle. Simba looked over towards Kula who was standing back a few feet with an almost pleading look on her face.

"Sure, She'd find out sooner or later" Simba said knowing that his father's sudden change in attitude would surely not go unnoticed. The way he said that made it sound like it was something really big, that sooner or later everyone in the pride would know about, and they all wanted to be the first to hear about it.

The four lions started to walk away from Pride Rock and onto a trial, were all eyes turned towards Simba. "Ok, so I'm not really sure how to say this but all I know as of now is that my father has changed" Simba started, looking around to see how everyone would react.

"Change how?" Nala quickly responded. Simba never really said if he had changed for the better or the worst, and Nala didn't want Mufasa trying to make Simba's life any more miserable than it already was.

"Well… I just asked him a simple question… sorta… and the last thing he said to me in his answer was 'son'. He's never called me that before. And then not too long after that, he asked to talk to me and then apologizes to me for all the bad things he's done, Like neglect me, blame me for my mother's death and refusing to train me to be king. I just don't know why he changed so suddenly, but he asked me if I could ever forgive him and that maybe one day we could actually be father and son" Simba said explaining everything he knew.

"Uhh… and what did you say?" Nala asked again, noticing that he left out the part of what he thought.

"He accepted his apology" Tama said. Nala looked over at Tama wondering how she knew that or why she spoke for Simba, but then shifted her gaze back to Simba to see what he was going to say.

"Yea. Just wanted to let you guys know about this and whatnot" Simba said looking around to see what everyone would think. He didn't really know what to do in these kinds of situations and knew that telling his closest friends was probably the best option.

"So… your father… likes you again?" Kula asked a little confused.

"Yea" Simba said.

The three girls all started to think about it now that they all had a little bit more of a clear picture, and all had different opinions on the situation.

"Well It's good to see that King Mufasa is finally doing the right thing" Kula said with a smile, trying to cheer Simba up.

"Might be good, but we shouldn't just trust him so easily. He's done awful things and we have to remain cautious" Tama said not liking the idea of trusting him just yet. It was typical of Tama to think like this, but both Nala and Kula wondered why she couldn't a little happy for once, as this was a big deal.

"I'll figure this out with him, but for the meantime, at least you guys know about my father in case he does something weird or out of the ordinary" Simba said not wanting them to be confused by the way his father was acting.

Nala was thinking about this whole thing when she noticed that the sun was starting to get low, and her thoughts went back towards Tojo and Ariya. Nala remembered that Tojo and Ariya were going to have a little 'date' tonight, and she wanted to make sure that he was going to be ready and wouldn't chicken out. She knew that this new Mufasa thing was a big deal, but she also knew that Simba was more than capable of dealing with it on his own, and if he needed help, Kula, Tama, and her mother would always help him.

"Sounds good. I gotta go in the meantime" Nala said placing a kiss on the underside of Simba's chin before walking off back towards Pride Rock. Simba had no idea why she left so quickly or dismissed the topic at hand so quickly. Every time something went wrong she was always asking him questions trying to make sure he was going to be ok, and rarely ever left his side, so it seemed weird that she was so calm about it, but he didn't really think too much of it.

"Well, I'm happy that your father has changed" Kula said before turning back around and heading towards Pride Rock, knowing that Tama would do a better job helping Simba than she could. Kula didn't know how Tama and Nala were able to connect to him so well or be able to understand him the way they did, but all Kula did know was that she wasn't as good as they were.

Simba looked back at Tama to find that she was looking at him. Simba knew that she wanted to talk to him alone this entire time, and also knew that she was a little concerned for him. Simba was starting to realize that Tama was starting to act more and more like Nala used to. She was trying to protect him and prevent him from having problems instead of helping him overcome the problems he was going to have to encounter at some point.

"I'll be fine, Tama. This is something I have to do. There's no running away or hiding from this. If I ever need any help, I already know you'll be here for me" Simba said already knowing what she was going to say. Tama gave him a little smile of embarrassment at how he was able to predict what she was going to say, but it relieved her that he knew that she would always be there to help him if he ever needed it.

"You know what's weird?" Tama said after a moment of thinking.

"What?" Simba asked.

"It's warm right now. It was practically freezing this morning, but now it's warmed up a lot" Tama said. Simba hadn't noticed it, but she was right. It was freezing this morning, and now it had to be in the sixties.

"That is weird" Simba said not being able to come to a conclusion as to how it warmed up so quickly.

"So now what?" Tama asked not knowing what Simba was going to do for the remainder of the night.

"Not sure, Probably just going to walk around aimlessly and think" Simba said. Tama nodded, knowing that he just wanted to be left alone, and turned around and headed back to Pride Rock. Simba also turned around and started to aimlessly walk into the pride lands and started to think.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala walked into the den to find Tojo pacing nervously inside. Nala already knew that he was going to be nervous, so this wasn't at all a surprise to her. Nala walked up to Tojo, who was still pacing around nervously and hadn't even noticed her presence.

"Hey" Nala said snapping him out of his thoughts. Tojo looked over to see that Nala was now in front of him, and knew exactly why she was in front of him. She wanted to talk about the same thing that had him pacing nervously inside the den for the past hour.

"I don't think I'll be able to do this" Tojo said not thinking he would be able to survive more than five minutes alone with Ariya. There was just too much time for something to go wrong and for him to mess up.

"You can, and you will" Nala said making it sound like an order. "You said that you were going to meet her at the same spot you did earlier today so that's what you're going to do. If you don't show up, you're going to make her feel bad and then she's going to have a bad impression of you" Nala said. Tojo thought about what she said and knew that she was right, but still felt like he couldn't do it.

"I… I just can't. I mean look at her" Tojo said pointing towards Ariya's sleeping figure. "She's just so beautiful and amazing. I'm going to mess up and make myself look like a fool" Tojo said knowing that he was going to fail.

"So? Tojo, let me tell you something" Nala said getting his attention. "If someone loves someone else, it doesn't matter if they make themselves look like a fool, dork, idiot, moron, you name it because they will still love them the same at the end" Nala started, making Tojo see why he had to do this. "For instance, if Ariya likes you, you could mess up in front of her and she would still like you, and if she doesn't like you, then all you did was mess up in front of her which isn't the end of the world. For instance, Simba is always embarrassing himself in front of me. Really, he does it all the time" Nala paused with a little chuckle. "But I still love him and to be honest, I find it adorable when he acts all nervous and embarrasses himself. All I'm trying to say is that if Ariya loves you, and you love her, there is no way that this won't work unless you chicken out. So show up, be yourself, don't worry about messing up, because if you do and she really does love you, It won't matter" Nala finished, making it as clear as she possibly could.

Tojo took a moment to think about what she said and realized that it made sense. If Ariya messed up and made a fool of herself in front of him, he wouldn't all of a sudden dislike her, he would still be in love with her and wouldn't see her as any different than before.

"Thanks" Tojo said walking past her and out of the den towards the spot where she told him to meet him. Nala was surprised that her little speech worked so well on him and that was all it took for him to gain some courage. Nala didn't want it to sound like she doubted him, but she thought she was going to have to drag him against his will outside so that he would show up, but luckily he found some confidence.

Nala looked out past Tojo and saw that there were still a good thirty or so minutes until the sunset, so he was a little early, but that was probably because she got him all fired up. Nala wanted to hang around and see how his little 'date' with her would go, but she knew that he would probably want some privacy, and this was something that he would need to do on his own without her help on the sidelines.

Nala walked out of Pride Rock to go look for Simba, and set off in the first place she would expect him to be, his hideout.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala arrived at Simba's Hideout and was glad to see him pacing around inside, thinking about something. "Hey" Nala said as she broke Simba from his thoughts and stopped him from pacing. Simba looked over to see that Nala was walking up to him and gave her a small smile.

"Hey, Whatcha ne-" Simba was saying before Nala walked right up to him and kissed him mid-sentence. Simba was a little surprised by this, but then again Nala loved to do little romantic things like this.

Nala broke the kiss and started to nuzzle lightly in his chest. "Just want some company for tonight" Nala said. Simba thought that she was going to want to talk about his father and what not, but he also didn't mind spending the night with her. He was honestly a little glad that she wasn't acting all worried because, for the most part, he had everything handled, it was only a matter of his father making the next move.

Simba started to feel Nala push him over, and let her, causing her to push him to the ground and pin him there. Simba looked up to see that Nala was smiling down at him and was chuckling a bit. Nala rolled over so that she was next to him and continued to smile at him.

Simba was wondering why she was being so playful right now. He didn't mind her being playful one bit, but he thought that she would just be a little worried. His father suddenly changing and acting all weird was something that he expected would have Nala all worked up over, but wasn't complaining that she wasn't.

"I love you" Nala said while brushing her paw over his cheek.

"I love you too" Simba said looking into her eyes. Simba and Nala stayed that way for a few minutes, just looking into each other's eyes with a look of love and trust.

Simba was broken from her eyes when he realized that she had stopped looking in his and was studying his arm with a lot of interest. "Stand up" Nala said as she got up in a curious voice.

Simba was curious to figure out why Nala was curious and got up with her. "Can I see your arm?" Nala asked as she held out her paw. Simba figured that she probably saw something that was 'weird' or foreign to her and probably just wanted a close look at it, and he gave her his right arm.

"Your other arm. Your left paw" Nala said being more clear the second time. Simba switched his arms and gave her his left this time. Nala took his paw and positioned it so that the pad on his paw was facing down, and she started to look at a strange scar on the top of his paw. It was perfectly straight and neat, unlike any other scar she had ever seen.

"Weird" Nala said as she flipped her grip so that she could feel it. It didn't feel like a normal scar and she didn't remember ever seeing this scar before.

"Got it from the storm" Simba lied, not wanting to say where he actually got it from.

Nala dropped his paw and wore a face that was both sad and bored, which Simba picked up on right away. "What's wrong?" Simba asked wanted to see if he couldn't cheer her up.

"Can… Can I ask something about you?" Nala said making eye contact.

"Sure" Simba said not really knowing why she asked for permission when he had told her before that she can ask him anything.

"When did you fall in love with me?" Nala asked wanting to know how long Simba had either had a crush or been in love with her.

Simba took a moment to think, and then remembered back to the first time he ever felt love for Nala. "I was watching from a distance as you and the others were randomly playing some game, not sure which game, but I didn't really know who was who, and then I saw you. I don't know why but for some reason you stood out from everyone else in a good way. You were funny, nice, creative… hot" Simba said with a chuckle remembering how Nala looked in the moment. "I just kind of fell in love with you. I imagined how amazing it would be if you were my friend and how we could do all sorts of things, but that never really happened, or at least not for a long time" Simba said, looking up at Nala who was looking at him with a smile on her face.

"Did you ever daydream about me, honestly?" Nala said with a chuckle. After Nala met Simba and they became a couple, she spent most of the day daydreaming about him and what not, so wondered if he did the same.

"Yea" Simba said being a little embarrassed. "I never imagined us doing anything too romantic, but like kinda just hanging out and having fun" Simba said. Nala chuckled a little at how he had to add that last part about it not being 'too romantic' and what not.

"And look at us now. We're a couple, healthy relationship, and a night all to ourselves" Nala said as she moved forward and nuzzled into Simba chest, enjoying the warm feeling she got from it. Nala felt Simba move his head down and tuck her head under his head, and smiled at how he was finally manning up and making some moves.

"So how do you want to spend the night" Simba said once he felt Nala stop nuzzling and felt her relax.

"Kissing" Nala said honestly, but since they were in private she wanted to teach him how to make it even more romantic.

"Just kissing?" Simba said, surprised that she didn't want to do anything else.

"Teach you how to kiss, which will involve some demonstrations" Nala said, moving back a little and sat down. Simba followed her lead and wondered what she meant because she told him that he was an amazing kisser.

"I thought you liked my kissing" Simba said with a slight chuckle.

"I do, but I want to teach you some things" Nala said with a chuckle. "Ok first, there's the basic kiss, which is what we always do. Then there's making out" Nala said getting a little excited. She had never made out before, but she had heard other lions talk about it and it sounded amazing.

"Making out?" Simba asked a little confused.

"Yea, it's a special type of kiss that's very romantic and shows a lot of love, passion, and other emotions" Nala said trying to describe it. She didn't know the exact definition, but that's what she defined it as. "Follow my lead" Nala said as he began to move towards his face. Simba closed in on hers as well just like he would when he would kiss her any other way. Simba felt the kiss begin as if it were any other kiss, but then he felt her move her head to the side and rest her paw on his cheek. Simba then felt her tongue brush over his teeth and was confused by what he should do. He felt her do this again and decided to open his teeth a little, and that's when he felt her tongue enter his mouth just a little and begin to glide around his mouth. Simba was a little confused as to why this was even a thing. It felt good, but it was also weird to stick your tongue into someone else's mouth. Simba was still trying to get used to this weird feeling when he felt Nala break the kiss, and back away, with a strand of both of their saliva still attached to each other, before it broke in half and landed on the ground.

"That's making out" Nala said almost dreaming as it felt better than she could have ever imagined. Nala looked up at Simba to see that he had a conflicted face, and was starting to think that he may not have liked it. "Did you… like it?" Nala asked with a nervous chuckle, not really knowing how to ask that question.

"Well, yea… but isn't it weird to stick your tongue into someone else's mouth and what not?" Simba said weirded out by how making out became a thing, because it meant that someone somewhere decided to stick their tongue into someones else's mouth during a kiss, and the other person enjoyed it.

"I mean, it depends how you look at it" Nala said, earning a curious look from Simba, telling her that she needed to go more in depth. "If you think about it from a normal perspective, I agree, It's weird to stick your tongue into someone else's mouth, but from a romantic perspective, it shows love, trust, compatibility… or at least that's how I see it" Nala said trying to explain what she meant.

"I guess" Simba said not really understanding, which he didn't really mind as there were so many things about Nala he didn't really understand. Simba then decided he was going to try and find out a little bit more about her to try and be able to please her more in the future.

"So" Simba said, getting Nala's attention. "You're into romance and whatnot, right? Or like doing romantic stuff" Simba asked, causing Nala to smile a bit.

"Yes, why do you think I always drag you out here to kiss and cuddle for hours on end" Nala said in a sarcastic voice. Simba already knew that she liked doing romantic things, but decided that he would ask anyway to spark up the conversation.

"Well… uh…" Simba said, but was being a little shy and didn't really know how to say what he wanted to say. Nala started to get a little excited and impatient as she had a good idea about what he was thinking but figured that he was just trying to not be weird about it. "Well since we got all night, and were alone, was there anything, in particular, you wanted to do to pass time?" Simba said hoping what he said didn't sound creepy.

"Yes, I would like to teach you how to be more romantic" Nala said. Simba had no idea what things Nala considered to be romantic and what things she didn't, so gave her his all time famous face that told her he didn't understand. "I want to just teach you and show you how you can be a little more romantic during moments like this" Nala said after seeing his facial expression.

"Teach away" Simba said, earning a smile from Nala.

"Well for starters, you need to be more confident in your actions. One thing that I've always noticed about you is that you seem to want to do something, but you don't want to upset the other person or make the situation weird" Nala said, starting to explain how Simba could be more romantic. "Secondly, you need to start taking the lead more often. I'm always the ones to start the nuzzle or the kiss, and I'm always the one who is leading them, so don't be shy to take initiative" Nala said. "And lastly… well…" Nala said thinking of something that she would like him to do to make their little moments more romantic. "I don't know, but do you get the idea?" Nala asked hoping that he would understand.

Simba got the idea that she was trying to tell him that he needed to start taking more action and not let her do all the work. "So basically you're telling me to man up and start enjoying the moment more?" Simba said with a smirk, certain that that's what she meant. Nala smiled and gave him a nod.

Nala leaned forward and fell into Simba, who caught her and let them role over so that they were back on their sides. "I love doing that" Nala said.

"Doing what?" Simba asked, not really knowing what she was talking about. Nala gave him a playfully smile, before starting to shift around in his grasp to get more comfortable.

"Falling into you like that. You always catch me and we always end up cuddling at the end" Nala said placing a kiss on his jaw.

Simba slowly brought his paw up to her face, but stopped a few inches away, making Nala wonder what he was doing. "May I?" Simba asked. Nala then realized that he wanted to rest his paw on her cheek and was asking for her permission, which made her both smile and curious. Instead of responding with words, Nala took her own paw and put it on top of his, bringing it down to her cheek. This was exactly what Nala meant when she was explaining to Simba that she wanted him to act more romantic, and was happy to see that her plan worked.

Nala watched as Simba started to inch forward towards her face and her eyes lit up knowing what he was going to do. Nala moved forward and met Simba halfway, and focused solely on the kiss, enjoying every moment of it. Nala once had a weird dream, but a dream that she still remembers and wishes that she could relive in person one day. It was about her and Simba lying down together in his hideout, snuggled up together, spending the entire day just kissing and nuzzling, and this moment was reminded her of that. Nala felt the kiss being broke and backed out before leaning forward and resting her body against his.

Nala didn't know why, but she felt like she could never get enough of Simba. She loved him so much and always felt like she could never express how much she truly loved him, and always resorted to nuzzling and kissing, but even that didn't show it all. Nala took a few steps back and looked back at Simba to see that he was smiling at her, which made her smile as well. Nala loved everything about Simba, and when she thought about it, she couldn't really come up with anything that she truly disliked or hated about him. Sure, there were things he did that annoyed her, but that didn't change the way she saw him one bit.

"Come here" Nala randomly said, bringing Simba back to earth. Just like her, he was daydreaming about how beautiful and amazing she was, and was broken from his thoughts when he heard her say something. Simba stepped up to Nala and waited for her to tell him what to do next.

"Can I see your arm… again" Nala said with a little chuckle realizing that this was the second time tonight that she had asked to his arm. Knowing that she probably wanted to either see, feel, or test something, Simba gave Nala his arm without questioning what she wanted to do.

Nala took hold of Simba's arm and started to move it around with him letting her, showing her no resistance. Nala flipped his arm so that the underside of his paw was facing up, and she moved her paw on his forearm. Nala unsheathed her claws and pressed them into his arm, wanting to see what his reaction would be.

"Does this hurt?" Nala asked as she was applying moderate pressure with her claws which had to hurt to some extent if not be uncomfortable.

"No" Simba replied honestly. He felt the pressure she was applying with her claws, but it wasn't like it hurt him at all.

"Do it to me" Nala said, dropping his arm and extending hers out so that he could do the same thing she had just done, but as she predicted, he was afraid that he would hurt her so he stood there with an uneasy look on his face. "Fine" Nala said, seeing that the look he was giving her was a 'no', but she still wanted to see if she could play rough with him, or at least play around with his strength.

"What's it like being so strong?" Nala asked, wanting to know how living in a pride where you were the strongest one your age by far.

"Um… I don't know… I hardly ever use it" Simba replied, not even knowing the own limits of his strength, having never tested it before. Nala wasn't surprised to hear this as he was a rather shy and scared person who always feared hurting people, but Nala still didn't understand how he thought he was going to hurt her.

"Are you afraid you'll ever hurt me? Like physically?" Nala asked knowing the answer would be yes. Nala watched as Simba's facial expression went from relaxed to uneasy quickly and knew that she sparked some conflict within him.

"Well, yea" Simba said being honest with his fear. Simba knew that he was way stronger than Nala was, so feared he may accidentally overpower her and end up hurting her as she would be unable to defend herself or save herself.

Simba watched as time nearly slowed as his defensive mode started to kick in. He watched as Nala began to move suddenly and unexpectedly, bring her paw up as if she wanted to strike him in the head. Simba saw that she was moving her paw in position to hit him in the side of the head, and started to feel the urge to block the punch, but didn't, as he wouldn't fight Nala. He couldn't.

Nala stopped her paw right before it hit Simba in the face, surprised to see that all he did was move his eyes from her eyes to her paw. He didn't flinch, brace himself, prepare to fight back, or even try to stop her paw with his own. Nala slowly unclenched her paw and then rested it on his cheek, giving him a small smile which seemed to confuse him.

"You just couldn't fight me even if you wanted to" Nala said knowing what his response would be.

"Yea" Simba said, being honest by saying that he just couldn't fight her.

"Well good, because I couldn't either" Nala said, moving her paw to the back of his head and pulling him into a quick little kiss that Nala decided to give to help brighten the moment and the mood. Nala was caught off guard and felt Simba sudden grab her as he rolled over, taking her with him. Nala was surprised that Simba would actually do something like this as he was scared of hurting her, but wasn't mad one bit.

Nala felt Simba stand buck up but he held her down, pinning her to the ground. Nala was curious as to what he was thinking of doing as he had never done something so outgoing with her before and this was something that normally she would do.

Nala felt Simba start to place rough licks on her cheek, and started to squirm as she found it to be very ticklish. "Simba stop that!" Nala said laughing as she tried to pull away, but for the first time that she could remember, Simba resisted. Nala actually smiled at this, as it meant that he was becoming more confident and changing for the better. After a few more moments of Simba abusing Nalas ticklish spot, he finally got off of her and let her back up.

"What was that?" Nala asked still laughing a little as she could still feel the sensation of being tickled.

"Outgoing" Simba said with a smirk, earning a playful glare from Nala. Nala turned around and looked out towards the savannah. It was now almost Sunset and the suns rays were shining a gold haze over the pride lands, almost making the view majestical. Nala sat down and watched the sunset, seemingly mesmerized by it, when she felt Simba up from behind her and gently lean into her, telling her where he was. Nala sat down and shifted back so she was resting up against Simbas chest, and Simba turned a little so that Nala could rest the full side of her face on him while putting his head on top of hers almost tucking her in in a way, looking out towards the sunset.

Nala felt the position they were in and the setting around them and could only describe it with two words. Romantic, and perfect. When she asked Simba for romantic, this is was she was talking about. The two watched as the last few rays of the light retreated behind the mountains in the distance and the golden tint that was shining over the pride lands began to recede as well.

"Thank you" Nala said turning around while still snuggled up into him so that she could be in her usual position for when she wanted to relax within his chest. Simba was a little confused as to why she said thank you, as he hadn't really done anything, and he was certain that she wasn't thanking him for the tickling that he did to her over a minute ago.

"For what?" Simba asked.

"For making this night so special and perfect" Nala said, before backup up a little and placing a gentle kiss on his lips. Nala opened her eyes to see that Simba looked to be like he was thinking about something confusing, and wondered what he was thinking about.

"Wait here" Simba said as he suddenly got up and went to walk out of his hideout from the tall grass, not the normal exit. Nala was confused, but she decided to do what he said a patiently started to wait.

A few minutes later, Nala was still waiting, and was beginning to get just a little impatient, but knew that she just had to give it time as Simba would never ditch her. As if on queue Simba came back out of the grass from the exact spot that he exited from, carry a red flower in his mouth, which Nala immediately identified to be a rose. Nala was shocked. She had heard stories about them and how the grew only in certain parts under certain conditions, and this one was in perfect condition.

Simba trotted up to Nala and tucked the rose behind her ear, flattering Nala and leaving her speechless. He knew the location of this special flower and others like it and decided that he would gift it to her. Simba noticed that Nala had a little dirt on her coat from how they had been rolling around and started to think about how he would clean it off.

Simba started to lick the areas of her face that had some dirt on it and was relieved to see that Nala didn't mind. Simba looked back down at Nala and saw that her fur was still a little uneven and started to comb that out with his paw as well. Simba took a few steps back to admire his work and was left speechless at what he saw. He had honestly never seen Nala look so beautiful before and it just blew his mind that someone could even have such beauty.

"Now, it's special" Simba said, practically melting Nalas heart. Nala then realized that when she thanked him for making the night so special and perfect, he was thinking of a way to make it even more special and perfect, and now he had.

"How do I look?" Nala said flashing him a smile, something she wasn't previously doing. Nala watched as Simba looked at her as if she was a goddess, and smiled even more at how he was staring at her. It made her feel special that she had this kind of an effect on him, and what made it even better was that it looked like he was trying to come up with an answer, but was just speechless.

"Beautiful" Simba said after a few moments of just staring at her in awe. Simba monitored for her to follow, and Nala began to wonder where he was leading her. Nala watched as Simba took a few steps to the left and was looking down at his little pond, and Nala got the idea that he wanted to see how beautiful she really was. Nala approached the pool slowly, wondering how she would look with this rose tucked behind her ear, and slowly started to lean over the pond and look down at her reflection.

Nala was shocked when she saw herself. She was always playing around or messing with her friends, so her coat and fur were usually messed up, but for the first time that she can remember, she actually looked respectable, and even going as far as saying pretty. Nala then looked at the flower again and caused her to start feeling that little special feeling that she was just previously experiencing.

"Thank you Simba, but you didn't have to get this rose for me" Nala said carefully as she nuzzled into the side of his neck and mane, not wanting to damage the precious flower.

"No one else I could have given it to" Simba said placing a small kiss on her muzzle, glad to see that she didn't mind him doing little things like that.

"Nala, Simba!?" Simba and Nala both heard someone call out. Simba and Nala looked over to see that Sarafina was walking into the hideout and spotted them by the pond.

"Nala I-" Sarafina started, but stopped suddenly. "Is that a rose?" Sarafina asked not knowing if what she was seeing was a real rose or just a look alike. Sarafina then noticed that her daughter was all clean and well groomed as if something very important to her was about to happen. Nala felt that special feeling return once again as her mother had incidentally noticed her flower and seemed to be shocked by it.

"Yes, Simba caught it for me as a gift" Nala said snuggling up into Simba a little when she said his name. Sarafina then gave Simba one of the most appreciative smiles she had ever given anyone for doing such a thing to her daughter. It warmed her heart to know that Simba cared so much about Nala that he would give her such a special flower.

"Well, it makes you all the more beautiful" Sarafina said admiring her daughter. Nala smiled a little at all the attention she was being shown right now and couldn't help but retreat a little into Simba embarrassed.

"Simba where did you find that rose?" Sarafina asked not ever having seen one in years.

"There a bunch of them not too far from here, but they're hidden really well. I sorta was walking when I was a lot younger and accidentally stumbled upon it when heading here" Simba said. Sarafina as confused. He said 'a bunch', as in more than one, meaning that he knew the location of one of the rarest flowers in all of Africa.

"How many?" Sarafina asked getting curious.

"Probably between a hundred to two hundred" Simba said, causing both Nala and Sarafina to give him a dumb look. Simba then realized that the roses he knew about were a lot more important than he had originally thought, and were probably pretty rare. Now that Simba thought about it, he had never seen any roses beside the place he had just described.

"Could… could you take me there?" Sarafina asked wondering if Simba would be willing to show them such a treasure. To her surprise, Simba nodded and started to walk. The tree began to walk before Nala sudden released a small shriek.

"Ow, Shit" Nala said nursing her paw as she looked at a rose thorn stuck in it. Nala was wondering why a rose thorn was on the ground but then realized that it was from the rose that she was wearing. Simba had probably knocked it off so it wouldn't poke her.

"Nala, language" Sarafina said in a warning tone, not liking her daughters' profanity regardless of why she used it.

"Sorry, it just hurts" Nala said explaining why she said what she said. The three continued on towards the roses but Nala had a limp in her left paw as it stung like hell for no apparent reason.

"Nala come here" Sarafina said walking towards her daughter, and Nala started to walk towards her mother, thinking that she was about to be punished for her language. Nala stopped once her mother was in front of her and avoided eye contact. Sarafina quickly picked up Nalas paw and pulled the thorn out of it before she even had time to figure out what she was doing. Nala shrieked in pain, but then felt a light nuzzle from her mother telling her that it was ok and she was sorry for being so sudden.

Simba watched as Sarafina and Nala shared a brief nuzzle and felt a little ping of jealousy that he couldn't have ever experienced that feeling for himself… well… at least not in person that is.

Simba turned back around and headed in the way of the rose vine he knew about, hoping that they would see him moving and stop. It wasn't that he was jealous of their bond and wanted to ruin the moment, but felt jealous that he didn't have that type of bond and didn't really want to watch them do something he never could. As he expected, the two saw him continue on and started to follow him again.

Simba led them out of his hideout, through some rather thick brush, over a small creek, and stopped just before some thick brush, telling them that they were there. Simba looked back at them and nodded, telling them that they had arrived, before pushing his way through all the brush that stood in the way. Sarafina and Nala did the same, and when they finally got to the other side, both gazed at the biggest collection of roses they had ever seen. It was a giant singular bush that had kept growing and now was huge. They both noticed that at some places the bush was a thick as small trees, and knew that this was a very old flower. They then looked toward the flowers themselves and took in their beauty, not ever having seen so many before.

"Simba, this is amazing" Sarafina said taking the time to explore the place thoroughly, not wanting to miss any detail. Sarafina knew that it was a miracle that this had been able to avoid the detection of other animals, as they would probably spread the news and it would be destroyed.

"This place is incredible" Nala said with a smile. Simba was happy to that they both seemed to like this place, and that he had been able to make both of them smile.

"Just try and keep it a secret" Simba said walking around and taking a look at his incredible find, before just exiting the brush and leaving the two lionesses behind, confusing them both. He never said goodbye, or gave them any little indicator that he was going to leave, he just left.

"Simba" Sarafina said, wanting to bring him back making sure that he was going to be ok. Sarafina watched as Simba came back inside the little area with a confused look. Sarafina then realized that he was indeed ok, and she needed to say something back. "We'll come with you, just give us a second" Sarafina said with a smile before motioning Nala to exit where Simba was. Nala took one last look at the beauty this location had to offer, before following Simba out with her mother in tow.

The three exited onto a very familiar path that led directly to Pride Rock. Sarafina was surprised to see that the location of the rose bush was only a few feet away from a path that she used nearly every day. It just seemed so odd how there could be a huge stash of one of the rarest flowers around, and it was just off the bank of one of the trails that was commonly used by the residents of Pride Rock.

The three were walking towards Pride Rock, with Simba in the front, and Sarafina and Nala talking to each other in the back, when Simba all of a sudden stopped.

Sarafina and Nala were confused by this as it was weird for him to have just stopped all of a sudden, and Nala went to say something. "Simba is everything alri-" Nala was saying before Simba shot his hand up in the air silencing her immediately. Nala was taken back by this, not expecting him to be so harsh in his method on silencing her, but it told her that something was wrong.

Sarafina watched as Simba closed his eyes and focused his hearing. Sarafina knew that Simba had way better senses than she did and knew that he could hear something right now that she couldn't, and this could possibly be an emergency. Sarafina watched as Simba suddenly sprang his head in the direction of whatever noise he was hearing with a very concerned look, and he was now starting to make her worried.

"No…" Simba said softly with a quiver in his voice, sending chills down Sarafina and Nalas spines. They had never heard him use such a distressed tone before and it made them worry that something was seriously wrong. "Shit!" Simba suddenly yelled before bolting out into the pride lands, sending Sarafina and Nala into a state of panic. They two lionesses did the only two things they could think of, follow him.

Sarafina, being faster than Nala, took off in pursuit of Simba, but found that he was leaving her in the dust. Sarafina had no idea how fast Simba could run, but right now he was pulling away from her with great speed, and she was running at her fastest, so it had to be much, much faster than her. Sarafina watched as Simba broke through the brush in front of him, and the sounds that followed were that of pain and whining, that belonged to only one animal… Hyenas.

Sarafina broke through the brush to see that there were two hyenas stone cold on the ground, one was fleeing or looked to be running after something, and Simba had another pinned against the ground.

"Where is he!" Simba yelled, diggest his claws into the hyena's shoulder.

"Wheres who?" The Hyena responded. By this time, Nala had caught up and looked out upon the mess that Simba had created.

"I saw him. I heard him. Where. Is. He." Simba said, starting to break the hyena's shoulders. The Hyenas then realized that the lion must have overheard them and new about the little thing they had just done, and wanted to know where the cub was.

"Long gone" The hyena said with a smirk.

"I'm not going to ask you again. Where. Is. Mheetu." Simba said in a tone the read death. Sarafina then froze. Mheetu. Her son. The hyenas had done something with her son. Mheetu was only six months old and would be defenseless against Hyenas. They would have no problem killing him off as he was just too weak and fragile. Sarafina felt the natural feeling of absolute pure rage and terror go through her body and started to shake as she wasn't able to contain them.

"I ain't scared of you" The hyena said with a smirk.

"Then let me introduce you to someone who you will be" Simba said, breaking his left shoulder before getting off of him so that he couldn't run away. The hyena let out a hiss, but other than that he didn't seem al that affected by it.

"Oh, yea, who? His nanny?" The hyena said with a laugh that sounded almost choked from the pain in his shoulder.

"No… His mother" Simba said in the same death tone as before. The hyena's blood went cold upon hearing this. He may not have been afraid of Simba, or 'red mane' as they called him, but every animal knew… Never get between a lioness and he cub…

The hyena watched as Simba stepped aside and he got a good look as Sarafina. She was fuming. He could see the anger and the sadness within her and knew that she was unstable, and knew that she would kill him to get the location of Mheetu.

"Help!" Mheetu screamed as he ran through the bush, and tripped over the hyena that Simba had previously gotten off of. Everyone looked over to see that Mheetu was getting up but started to run around like a headless meerkat. Then everyone's attention was diverted by two more hyenas who came through the bush who were most definitely chasing Mheetu. The two hyenas stopped in front of Simba with looks of pure terror on their faces. They knew Simba. They had foughten him before and quickly ran away after seeing the look on his face, knowing that just like before, he meant business.

Mheetu then realized that his family was in front of him again, and ran towards his sister for comfort. Sarafina wanted to make sure he was ok, but she was far too worked up and was pouring over in seething rage. This hyena had tried to kill her son, so she was going to return the favor. Simba watched as Sarafina walked up to the hyena, placed her paw on his neck, quickly thrusting up, and snapping his neck.

Sarafina quickly turned around and ran over towards where Nala was and took Mheetu from her. Sarafina started frantically checking him over making sure that he was ok. Once finally making sure that he was ok, she hugged him deeply and started to mutter some inaudible things to him.

Simba felt the moment start to die down, and felt a sharp pain in his side. He looked down to see that he had a deep claw mark just below the diaphragm and right above the stomach that was bleeding badly and knew that when he engaged the first two hyenas, one of them clawed him and hit something important. Simba watched the blood loss and knew that he had hit some vein or some other blood vessel, and he was going to need medical help soon. Simba held his paw over the claw mark and looked over to see that Nala, Sarafina, and Mheetu were all comforting each other, and knew that he needed to get to Rafiki's, fast.

Simba began to run towards Rafiki's tree, but the pain in his side prevented him from doing so.

 _"Slow down, you're only making yourself bleed faster"_ Sarabi said, fearing for her son's life.

 _"I have a severed lumbar vein I'm going to be bleeding"_ Simba said ignoring the pain in his side as he saw Rafiki's tree in the distance, wondering if he'd make it.

 _"Suit yourself, but they'll do something about it"_ Sarabi said, confusing Simba. Simba had no idea what she meant by 'they'll' but didn't care, he needed to get to Rafiki's.

Simba was running when he suddenly saw two lions in front of him and knew they he'd crash. Simba slammed into the first one and slipped over the second one before landing in the dirt a few feet away from them. Wasting no time to say sorry or figure out who they were, he quickly got back up and started to make his way towards Rafiki's tree.

"Simba, what's wrong?" Tama said tackling him to the ground, wondering why he was hauling ass. Kula quickly came up beside him to hear what was wrong, but then smelt something… blood. Kula looked down to his right side and saw a pool of blood on the ground. More blood than she had ever seen before from any wound non-hunting related.

"Oh my god…" Kula said with panic in voice. Tama looked over at Kula, and then down to where Kula was looking and saw the pool of blood. Tama started to freak out. Memories of the storm and his blood on her paws and the cave floor started to come flooding back towards her mind and Tama began to freeze up, but pushed them away. His life was in her paws and by god she was not going to fail him.

"Get him up, and let's get him Rafiki's tree, now!" Tama said helping Simba up whilst shouting orders at Kula. Kula nearly hiccuped on a sob thinking that her friend was going to die before she snapped out of it and helped get Simba to Rafiki's place.

"Go ahead and warm Rafiki. Tell him to be ready" Tama ordered, wanting him to be ready for when Simba arrived.

"But-" "Goddamnit Kula I don't fucking care! Just do it for fuck's sake!" Tama screamed at Kula, using some of the strongest language she knew. Kula was taken back by this. No one ever said that word, so for Tama to use it twice was shocking to her, but Kula quickly got over it as there was a life on the line and she knew that Tama was worried sick.

"On it" Kula said before running off to warm Rafiki.

"Tama… No matter what happens… you'll always be my sister..." Simba said through grunts of pain. Tama nearly froze when she heard this, but kept on moving Simba. It was dark and she had no intentions on tripping on something and losing time, but at the same time, he made it sound like he was going to die.

"Don't say that" Tama said feeling the urge to cry, but not daring to. She could see Rafiki's hut, it was so close, she could practically smell it. She wouldn't let up now. She couldn't.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Rafiki was making some last minute changes around his tree for when Simba arrived after he heard what Kula said after she barged in. From what he could make out of what she said, and the state she seemed to be in, it was bad.

"They're almost here" Kula said in a worried tone.

"I know I know!" Rafiki said picking the pace up a little. "Wait outside. You're not gonna want to see dis next part" Rafiki said telling her that when he will be fixing Simba, she should probably wait outside.

Kula nodded and got down from the tree right as Simba and Tama were making their way up, and backed up to the top again. Rafiki saw the wound on Simba's side from across the tree and then realized how bad it was.

"Over 'er" Rafiki said patting the ground next to him. Tama led Simba over to where Rafiki patted and laid him down with his hurt side up, before lying down next to him for comfort. Kula saw what Tama did and decided that she was going to do the same but only look away from the wound. Tama lied down perpendicular to him so that she was right next to his head, and so Rafiki could access his underside. Kula lied down behind him and put her right paw under his right arm and then wrapped it back up so that her paw was resting on the side of his neck while sort of hugging him.

Rafiki started doing what he always did to patch up bigger wounds like these when he noticed that both girls were still next to him trying to comfort him. Rafiki knew that both girls just wanted to help comfort him, and it was better to just let them than to waste time by arguing. The real shit show would happen when Nala showed up.

Tama watched as Rafiki took this weird fruit and broke in open before applying the juice to his wound. Tama had no idea what the fruit was or what it did, but if it helped then it was good enough. Tama noticed that Simba hissed when Rafiki applied then weird juice, but besides that, he just looked to be in pain. Tama watched as he was clenching both of his front paws from the pain, and quickly wrapped up one of his paws with hers so that he knew she was here for him. Tama felt Simba bury his face into her neck for comfort, and she thought this to be a little weird. Normally the female nuzzled into the male's neck, not the other way around, but this was one of those time where there could be an exception. Kula rested her head on his shoulder, giving him little nuzzles every so often to try and give him maximum comfort, but there really wasn't a way to make someone fully comfortable in a situation like this.

Tama watched as Rafiki then took a porcupine needle and brought it close to his face. He started to whisper some words in a language she did not understand and watched as the tip of the needle began to start smoking as if it were hot. Rafiki brought it back down towards the wound but stopped a few inches away.

"I'm sorry, but I have to do dis" Rafiki said with an apologetic look to the three, but mostly to Simba. Tama and Kula both heard this and held Simba tight, having a feeling that this next part would be painful for him. Rafiki inserted the hot needle into the wound to cauterize the vein, and Simba felt a pain that he had never felt before. His outer nerves were used to being beaten up and had grown dull, but his inner nerves were fully awake and couldn't be ignored as they were firing like crazy.

Simba hissed in pain and buried his face deeper into Tamas' neck while tightening his grip on her paw. Rafiki finished mending the vein and quickly pulled the hot needle out, not wanting to cause him any more pain than necessary.

"I think I would be lying if I said that didn't hurt" Simba said with a painful chuckle, but no one found his joke to be funny. Tama didn't know why he had to say that as if he was making a joke because it wasn't helping the situation in any way, and resorted to gently squeezing his paw to let him know once again that she was next to him and trying to help him the best that she could.

Tama looked back down at the claw mark on his side to see that the wound had stopped bleeding and Rafiki was wiping away blood from the wound so that he could get a better look. Tama watched as he rested his hand right outside of one of the claw streaks, and knew exactly what he was thinking of doing, and knew that it would cause Simba an enormous amount of pain.

"Wait!" Tama called out, getting his attention. "Can't you give him some pain killer or sedative to help take away the pain?" Tama said knowing such things existed.

"Dat would only make dis worst" Rafiki said before turning back and going back to what he was about to do.

"What do you mean? It would help by keeping him out of pain and help him remain still" Tama said starting to strike up an argument.

"Tama, he has lost a lotta blood and his body won't respond well to painkillers. It will cause his heart rate to drop dangerously low and may even cause it to stop, and then there is no more I can do" Rafiki said, before finally reaching into one of the claw marks and extracting a hyena claw that got lodged in his muscle.

Surprisingly, Simba reacted well to this. He only let out a slight hiss but barely moved and didn't seem to be in any more pain than before. If anything, he seemed to be in even less pain. That claw was pressing up against one of his nerves causing a lot of discomfort, so when Rafiki removes it, he could finally relax that part of his body.

Next, Rafiki grabbed at a second porcupine needle and tied some tightly twisted twine to it, and Tama realized that he was going to do the same thing he did when he fixed up Simba's cut paw that one time and knew that it soon it would all be over. Tama watched as Rafiki started to tie the wound shut and this caused virtually no pain to Simba just like the last time he did this.

After what seemed like an eternity, in reality only three minutes, Rafiki finished the last stitch. Tama thought that he was done, but then Rafiki grabbed a bowl of water and poured it on the wound, washing the blood off, before reaching behind him and grabbing some weird red flower. Rafiki gave the flower a sad look, which confused Tama before he crushed it between his hands and rubbed it over the wound. Tama saw the hesitation in Rafiki when he crushed the flower and rubbed it over his wound, and knew that it must have been either rare and or special.

"Let me see him" Rafiki said waking up to Tama and holding his hand out. Tama removed Simba's face from the side of her neck and let Rafiki take a look. Rafiki noticed that he was pale from the blood loss, but other than that, he seemed to be fine.

"He'll be ok" Rafiki said resting him back on Tamas' shoulder before giving her a pat on her other shoulder.

Kula finally looked up upon hearing this and saw that Rafiki was done and looked over to his side to see that it was stitched up and no longer bleeding. Kula let out a sigh of relief before moving her paw towards his forehead and felt that it was cold. Rafiki noticed the look on Kulas' face when she did this and went to reassure her.

"It's ok Kula. He's lost a lot of blood and just needs to rest" Rafiki said trying to ease her. Kula gave him a little smile before resting her head back on his shoulder and focusing on getting some sleep to escape from reality for a bit.

"Who's going to tell Nala?" Tama asked realizing that she was probably wondering where he was, and she would want to know about something like this.

Rafiki smiled a bit upon hearing this. "Zazu!" Rafiki said, and once he said this, a blue hornbill flew in the tree and landed in front of him. "Tell Sarafina that I need to see her immediately, and tell her to bring Nala with her" Rafiki said. "Oh and, why not pay your old friend Mufasa a visit while you're at it" Rafiki said.

"Right away Sir!" Zazu said giving him a bit of a bow before flying off. Tama and Kula had never seen him around before and wondered who he was. From what they could tell, he was friends with Mufasa and Rafiki so he had to have some kind of importance, and he seemed to be very respectable by the way he acted.

"He will" Rafiki said turning back towards Tama. Tama wanted to ask him who that was and all the related questions but knew that he would probably be back and she could ask him herself. Tama gave Rafiki a little nod before looking back at Simba to see that he seemed to be awake but looked tired.

Tama then realized that she really had no Idea as to how he got the claw wound. All she knew was that it was definitely a hyena claw wounds as it was the right shape and size, and Rafiki pulled a broken hyena claw out of it. Tama looked down at Simba again and started to contemplate on whether she should wake him or not.

"Simba?" Tama said nudging him very gently to get his attention. Tama watched as he opened his eyes and gave her a little smile, which made her smile a little as well. "Hey, I just wanted to know what happened" Tama said in a voice just above a whisper.

"I was walking to Pride Rock when I heard this noise. It was the sound of yelling and some fighting. I realized that it was a hyena who had captured Mheetu and he was trying to get away from them and calling for help. I ran towards them and when I arrived there were five hyenas. I knocked one out, but a second clawed me in the side. I knocked him out after he did this and then I saw out of the corner of my eye two hyenas drag Mheetu into the tall grass. Or, one dragged him and the other was following him. I pinned the only one left and asked him where he was and where they were taking him, but Mheetu escaped and ran back toward us, where Sarafina and Nala comforted him, then I realized the claw marks and start to run here, and then ran into you two" Simba said looking up at Tama who was looking down at him with a sad look.

Tama has no idea why Simba was always putting his life in front of others. It wasn't that she thought that it was a bad thing, but it was stressing to her that every time something went wrong, it seemed like he was risking his life to solve the problem. Defending her from hyenas twice, the trials, taking a fall on a sharp rock for her, and now this.

Tama leaned down a little and gave Simba a little nuzzle, taking in the softness and warmth he had to offer. Tama then pulled away and let out a sigh. Tama then felt Simba start to stand up, and tried to hold him down. Kula was woken up when she felt Simba move and the realized that he was trying to stand up, and also went to try and hold him down so he didn't end up hurting himself by accident.

Despite their efforts, Simba was still able to stand up easily and both Tama and Kula got up to keep him from doing anything stupid.

"Simba just relax, I don't want you hurting yourself" Tama said holding him in place as he tried to take a step forward. Tama watched as he started to smile a bit and wondered what he thought was funny.

"I'll be fine" Simba said looking over at her in an attempt to ensure her that he could walk on his own without hurting himself. Simba watched as her facial expression went from concerned and caring to angry and irritated, and Simba realized that he had made her mad.

"Simba…" Tama said in a tone telling him that she was clearly pissed. Simba didn't really know what to say or do. This was one of those situations where no matter what he did or said, he was going to end up pissing her off even further and causing more conflict.

"Please?" Simba said giving her a bigger smile, hoping that his little attempt would get her to change her mind.

"No" Tama said giving him a stern look, not finding his humor at all funny, pointing back towards the spot where he was currently laying down.

 _"You're not going to win this one"_ Sarabi said letting Simba know before he wasted his time that he wasn't going to be able to talk Tama into letting him go.

Simba thought about what his mother said and realized that she was pretty much right. Unless he wanted to end up making Tama enraged, he was going to have to do what she said.

"When can I leave then?" Simba asked wondering how much longer he would have to stay in Rafiki's tree.

"Whenever Rafiki says you can" Tama said knowing that Rafiki would know when he would be able to leave.

"Shit…" Simba muttered, making both Tama and Kula surprised. He wasn't cursing about having to stay until an unknown date, but because he knew that something was either going to happen or was about to happen. Tama and Kula had only ever heard Simba swear once, so wondered what had caused him to use such a word.

"What?" Kula asked wondering what he was worried about.

"Nala..." Simba said with a little humor in his voice, before turning around and looking towards the only entrance that a lion could fit through. Tama and Kula then realized that Nala was probably about to come in and she would most likely be in a panic.

Tama and Kula the heard the sound of someone running towards the tree and saw Nala climb her way up and enter in front of them.

Nala looked up and saw that Simba was up on his paws and only looked to be a little pale, and was relieved to see that he was ok.

"Hey" Nala said as she walked up and gave him a little nuzzle before taking a step or two back. Everyone was a little surprised that she seemed to be calm, but they weren't complaining.

"Hey" Simba said giving her a little smile.

"Thanks for saving my brother, it means a lot to me" Nala said grateful that he was able to hear his calls for help and risked his life saving him.

"No problem" Simba said, before looking behind her and seeing that Sarafina has just finished climbing up the tree and was now on the inside.

Simba made eye contact with Sarafina and felt many different emotions go through his body. He knew that she wanted to talk to him and by the way she was looking at him, he could tell that there was going to be a lot of emotion behind her words.

"Out. Now." Sarafina said towards the three girls as she walking towards them, earning three angry looks.

"But I just got here" Nala said, trying to explain that she had had almost no time to make sure that Simba was really fine and not just faking it.

"Five minutes, then you can come back in" Sarafina said making it sound like a command. Sarafina watched as Nala, Tama, and Kula got up before walking out of the tree, leaving Simba and her alone, with the exception of Rafiki who was meditating. Sarafina knew that they wanted to stay inside and make sure that he was ok, that seemed to be the thing they always wanted to do, but right now she didn't care, she needed them out.

Without warning, Sarafina quickly lunged out at Simba and hugged him tightly. Simba was confused by her sudden gesture but returned the hug nonetheless.

"Thank you" Sarafina said nuzzling Simba, surprising him even more.

"Uh… for what?" Simba asked not knowing why she was thanking him.

"For saving him" Sarafina said breaking the hug and looking into his eyes. "There's nothing I can do to show you how grateful I am. If it weren't for you… I don't think we would have ever been able to find him" Sarafina said with a bit of a frown. If it wasn't for his amazing hearing, Sarafina would have gotten back to Pride Rock and realized that Mheetu was missing, and by then, it would have been far too late.

Simba then realized that she was talking about him saving Mheetu. Simba knew that Sarafina loved both Nala and Mheetu with everything she had and it would destroy her if she were to lose one of them. Simba knew little to nothing about the maternal bond between a mother and her cubs, but he knew that it was one of the strongest forces there were in the world.

"You're welcome. I was just doing what came naturally" Simba said, and earned a thrilled look from Sarafina. Sarafina was beyond happy that he said what he said because it proved that he accepted the rest of the pride and they had accepted him, and it was natural for members of the pride to protect each other.

Sarafina looked down at Simba with one of the most grateful looks she could give, before nodding to him and walking past him to talk to Rafiki. Simba felt fine and decided that he was going to leave and meet up with Nala outside as he knew that she would want to see him.

(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)

Nala, Tama, and Kula were all waiting for Sarafina to come out and tell them that they could come back inside and see Simba, when Simba himself jumped down from the tree and landed on the ground a few feet in front of them. They were all a little startled by this, and even more surprised to see that he jumped like that with the wound he had on his side.

"I think she's gonna talk to Rafiki for a bit" Simba said before walking towards the path that led to Pride Rock. The three girls decided that if Sarafina let him leave he was fine enough to walk back to Pride Rock and started to follow him.

"So how do you feel?" Nala said trotting up beside him so she could see his face.

"Fine" Simba replied truthfully, not feeling really any pain or discomfort in his side. Simba could see from the corner of his eye that Nala was giving him an uncertain look, not believing that he was totally fine after he sustained the wound he did. He then realized that the rose that she was previously wearing was gone, but he suspected that she probably lost it in all the panic.

"You sure?" Nala asked in a tone that was less of a question and more of a warning telling him that he shouldn't lie to her or hide the fact that he might be in pain.

"Positive" Simba said with a little chuckle, understanding her concern and trying to make a little humor of it. Nala sighed a little at how he chuckled but she knew the real reason as to why he did, so she wasn't totally annoyed. Nala just wished that he could just stop getting hurt. That he could for once in his life be completely and totally safe from all danger and harm, but that would never happen.

Nala looked back up and gave him a little smile which he returned. Nala was coming to the conclusion that he really was feeling fine as if he was in pain or discomfort he probably wouldn't be acting the way he was. Nala then remembered back to when she first met him, when she would 'sneak' out of Pride Rock and away from her friends to visit him in his hideout. She remembered how he was practically afraid to make eye contact with her and how shy he was acting. Nala never thought about it until now, but Simba was practically an entirely new lion compared to his old self.

Nala set her sights back on Pride Rock, just wanting to return home to get some sleep after what should have been the perfect night, not wanting anything else to go wrong.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

It had been a few days since the incidents with the hyenas, and everything seemed to be going well. Because of Mheetu nearly being killed by the hyenas, Mufasa stepped up and started to strictly return to his duties of patrolling the pride lands and removing anything or anyone who would threaten the safety of his pride.

Many of the lionesses of Pride Rock were starting to put their faith in Mufasa once again to be the king that Pride Rock needs. Before, many of them were concerned that due to his lack of action, the pride lands would be ruined and they would have to start a new life somewhere else, but now that fear was starting to go away and many people seemed to be in a better mood.

Tama and Kula were in one corner of Pride Rock talking about when their mothers would start to teach them hunting lessons. Malka, Chumvi, and Tojo where of course, lying around waiting for something to happen. Nala was at the mouth of the cave, enjoying the warm weather that had finally come, and Ariya and Mheetu were in the back of Pride Rock playing around and having fun. Simba was currently out with Mufasa learning some new lesson on how to be a king. From what Nala had heard about it, it seemed to be boring, but that's because he hadn't got to the interesting stuff yet.

"Mind if I join you?" Sarafina said walking up the hill that led into the cave. Nala looked over to see her mother approaching her, and gave her a smile.

"Sure" Nala said, wondering why Sarafina asked her that question in the first place. Seeing as Sarafina was her mother, it was a little weird that she asked for permission to sit down. It wasn't like Nala was all that old.

"So…" Sarafina started, but then died down, not knowing exactly what she was going to think. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something" Sarafina said with a somewhat nervous voice. Nala could hear the nervousness in her voice and wondered what it was, so shifted up a bit so she could face her mother.

"Ok?" Nala said with a curious voice.

"Alright, So you're starting to get to the age where you need to start thinking about what you want in life" Sarafina started, wanting to see how Nala would react. Nala knew where this was going, and started to get really nervous as well.

"Like?" Nala said with a lot of nervousness in her voice, hoping that she was going to have full say in what she wanted to do with her life. One thing Nala would not do was have to live a life either controlled or set up by someone else. She wasn't going to marry some random person and pretend like she loved them and then raise their cubs. It just wasn't going to happen.

"Like if you want to get married, have cubs, stay here, or go out into the unknown and make a life for yourself" Sarafina said wondering if Nala had ever given any of these things some thought.

"Well…" Nala said with a little chuckle. She liked the idea of marrying Simba, but she had never thought about having cubs. There was only one person on the planet that she would want to be her cubs' father, but she was concerned that that person may not ever like the idea. "I would definitely like to get married… but cubs…" Nala said with another chuckle.

"Any ideas as to who you may want to marry?" Sarafina asked, already knowing the answer, but asking anyway so she could hear it for herself.

"Simba" Nala said nervously, avoiding eye contact. It wasn't like this was a huge surprise or something to Sarafina, but Nala still felt a little embarrassed about the topic for no real reason.

"Well I hate to break it to you" Was the first part Nala heard and felt an explosion go through her body. Fear, anger, nervousness, and pain all attacking her at once. If her mother made any sort of arrangements without her knowing about it, she was going to express it in ways not possible yet. "But if you marry Simba, you're going to have to have at least one cub at some point" Sarafina said. Nala let herself relax but then wondered why.

"Why?" Nala asked, wondering why if you married someone you had to have cubs. That there wasn't some option to where you could be married, but not have them. Once again, it wasn't that she didn't want any, it was just the idea of making them that made her unsettled. She wasn't scared or grossed out by sex, but it was just... she couldn't see herself doing it.

"Because he is the king, and when he is of age, he will need an heir of his own" Sarafina said. Then Nala got the idea. Nala realized that if she wanted to marry Simba, it was going to have to happen at one point.

"Why are you even telling me this" Nala asked wondering why her mother struck this weird conversation with her all of a sudden. She already said it was because she was coming of age, but there had to be something else.

"Because, you're betrothed" Sarafina said, and waited for Nala to explode. Sarafina watched as Nala's eyes went from somewhat relaxed to wide open, and watched in slow motion as she started to stand up, but Sarafina acted quickly to prevent her from going off on a rampage. "With Simba" Sarafina quickly followed up.

"W-whaaa… why?!" Nala said it an aggressive but quiet voice so she didn't alert anyone else.

"Because, I thought it would be a good idea seeing as you both want to get married at some point" Sarafina said, defending her case. If anything, Nala should be thanking her. Now that he was betrothed, it would be nearly impossible for her to not marry him, and Sarafina wasn't pressing and due dates, so she could take it at her own speed.

"But…" Nala said wanting to be able to say something back, but couldn't find any words. Nala didn't really feel upset anymore, but she still felt hurt in some way. It now made her feel like it wasn't her choice, even though she did want to marry Simba. "When?" Nala said, fearing that her mother may have set up some kind of date for their wedding, making it feel even more forced.

"Whenever you're ready" Sarafina said with a smile, hoping to ease her nerves. Sarafina watched as she released a sigh of relief, and was relieved to see that she was taking this all well.

"I need to tell him" Nala said turning and walking away. Sarafina knew that Simba wouldn't really care, and would only be happy. Sarafina only worried that Nala would tell him the wrong way and make it seem like she didn't want to marry him, and cause some sort of internal conflict.

Sarafina watched as Nala walked out into the pride lands to go look for Simba, probably having no idea where he really was, so she would probably be looking for a good bit. Sarafina let out a sigh and let a smile come to her face. For the first time in over a year, it seemed as if things were finally going good and everything was starting to find peace. Sarafina knew that something was bound to disrupt this peace, but for now, she would enjoy it.

 **Damn, this took forever. Really sorry for the wait, and I get that this was a long chapter. When I was writing it, I couldn't really find a good stopping place, so I decided to just make it longer than normal. So I hope y'all enjoyed, and I'm going to start writing about Ariya more next chapter and developed her character more. It seems like I added her and then forgot about her, and I also purposely left out her little night with Tojo, but don't worry, I'm not gonna leave anyone out. If you got any suggestions, send them my way and I'll consider adding them. I know this took a long time to publish, but I'm finishing up school and whatnot and have finals, so I'm busy and this was about the fastest that I could go, so sorry for the wait. That's all I got for now, so hope to see y'all around! Mr_Toast out!**


	15. A New Friend

**Simba's Pain Chapter 15**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back, everyone! Glad to see you're back for the next chapter. Don't know if anyone has noticed yet but I changed the cover image of this story. I made it myself in google docs, and sadly it took around an hour so I hope y'all like it. Just fits the story better than the old one that was sort of random. Also, I just made a discord to go along with this account, so if you find it easier to use discord than fanfiction, which can be slow and buggy at times, my discord is Mr_Toast#1679 so just message me there if that's easier for you guys. Also, Simba's Pain now has its own discord community where you guys can talk to each other, write reviews there, talk about the story, or random crap, and other things like that. The link to the discord server is bit. ly /SimbasPain without the space between bit and the .ly and no space between . ly and / and caps does matter** **. With all that out of the way, Enjoy!**

Mufasa was currently on one of his daily patrols around the pride lands after finishing up a lesson with Simba, making sure that the hyenas that had been causing trouble as of recently were staying out. Mufasa was thinking about his son and what he could possibly do to try and fix his past mistakes and improve their relationship. Mufasa had no idea why Simba forgave him so easily, as he made his life hell for a solid year, and then after a simple apology, he was forgiven.

Mufasa was thinking back to all the times he pushed him away, wondering why it never occurred to him that what he was doing was wrong. Simba was the only thing he had left. He was the one thing that was left of Sarabi and Mufasa just couldn't wrap his head around the idea of why he would ever do such a thing. Mufasa didn't remember ever feeling pain or pity for Simba when he neglected him, as every time he saw him the memories he had of Sarabi would come back to him and that's what would cause him pain.

Mufasa then started to think back to how he realized that what he was doing was wrong. He remembered Simba asking if Sarabi would be proud of him being king, and for the first time since her death, Mufasa thought about what Sarabi would have wanted for their son. Mufasa had no idea as to why it suddenly occurred to him, or what triggered his mind to realize that it was a mistake, but it just seemed so unreal to him that he could have been so lost for so long and then just come back all of a sudden, and be forgiven. Mufasa didn't know how he was so dumb, childish, irresponsible, and selfish. He was supposed to be the king. The one who protected and led his pride, but instead he let them down and failed every one. Mufasa still, and always would feel the guilt of having neglected his son for so long, and had no idea how he would ever eliminate, or even suppress the feeling he got every time he thought about it.

Mufasa stopped and looked across the pride lands. Everything he saw, he owned, and before he owned it, his father did, and before that his grandfather, and so on. For as long as any animal in the pride lands had been alive, the pride lands were ruled under one bloodline, his bloodline. He almost broke that chain by neglecting Simba, but he was a different person now. It was his responsibility to prepare Simba to be king so that the line would go on, and that's what he would do. Mufasa was going to have to put the past behind him and do what he should have done a long time ago.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was currently walking back to Pride Rock after his father was done teaching him about the balance that existed between the animals of the pride lands. Simba was honestly a little surprised that it was such an important topic that was overlooked by so many people. He never really realized it, but if one species of animal were to just disappear, for whatever reason, everyone in the pride lands would be affected, so it would one day be his job to make sure that didn't happen.

Simba could see Pride Rock in the distance and could make out a lion, definitely one of his friends judging by their size, walking down the side and stopping at the base. Simba tried to make out who it was but was too far away to see who it was. He could tell that they were looking around as if they were trying to find something or someone, and Simba moved up a hill so he could get a better look at what they were doing. Upon doing this, Simba saw the figure move their head in his direction, and stopped directly on top of him, telling him that they were looking at him.

Simba watched as the figure started to make its way towards him at a fast walking pace. They weren't jogging or running, but he could definitely tell that they were in some sort of hurry. Simba saw them move on to the trail that he was previously on, and made his way back on the trail so he could meet up with them halfway. He knew that they wanted to talk to him, or wanted something from him, or else they wouldn't have started walking straight towards him.

Simba walked up to a slight incline on the path, and then he could clearly make out who it was. Nala. Simba let a smile come to his face as he saw her, and started to make his way over to her knowing that she wanted to talk to him about something. The two looked at each other as they started to near each other, and finally met up in the middle.

"Hey" Nala said as she nuzzled into the side of his neck.

"Hey" SImba replied, gentle nuzzling her back. Simba felt as she pressed herself deeper into him and deepened the nuzzle itself, telling him that something was bothering her. Simba still didn't really know how to help a girl when she was feeling sad or something was bothering her, as no girl ever handled things the same. Nala, would nuzzle, kiss, and cry. Tama would either cry or go on a rampage, and Kula was usually pretty open and tried to talk about it once you got her to stop crying.

"I wanted to talk to you about something" Nala said after enjoying the nuzzle for a few seconds. Nala sat down in front of Simba and pressed herself into his chest, and felt Simba sit down as well before resting his head on top of hers, which she just adored.

"What's that?" Simba asked, knowing that by the way she was acting, it was definitely something not good.

"Well... First off, I just want to clear some things up" Nala said, not wanting to tell him straight up that they were betrothed.

"Clear what up?" Simba asked, trying to figure out what could possibly be bothering her. Simba felt Nala pull away from him and he took a step back so that he could see her face. Simba saw the conflicted look on her face and realized that she was trying to figure out what she wanted to say, or had already figured that part out, and was trying to figure out how she would say it.

"You love me. You wouldn't mind spending the rest of your life with me, and you also want me to one day be your queen, correct?" Nala started, hoping that she wouldn't create conflict inside of him about thinking that she didn't want any of those things.

"Yes" Simba said giving her a trustful look, not making any assumptions yet as he could tell she still had more to say.

"Ok, well as of a few minutes ago, I just found out that we're betrothed" Nala said giving him an unsure look, not knowing how he would take it. Nala watched as he had a thinking face for a few seconds before a smile came to his face, and she was relieved that he took it well.

"I mean, it's a good thing, right? Now we're guaranteed a life together and we both pretty much get what we want" Simba said not seeing anything wrong with that. They had already made it clear that they wanted to get married one day, so Simba didn't see anything wrong with being betrothed.

"Yea, I was just unsure of how you would react to it" Nala said with a nervous smile and saw that Simba gave her a suspicious look. "What?" Nala asked, wondering what he was suspicious about.

"Something's bothering you, and it has to do with being betrothed doesn't it?" Simba asked knowing that she was hiding something. Simba heard her release a sigh, before looking back at him.

"Yea" Nala said, knowing that she needed to tell him in case he wasn't on board with the idea of having a cub, but he was the king so it wasn't like he had a choice in the matter. "Since we're betrothed, we're going to have to have a cub at some point, but if you don't want to do it with me that's ok, I'm not forcing you or anything" Nala said trying to make it sound like she wasn't pressuring or forcing him to do anything he didn't want to.

"Oh... well, how are we going to do that?" Simba asked, earning a dumb look from Nala.

"The only way there is?" Nala asked wondering if he was being serious or just goofing around.

"Well, how do you make a cub?" Simba said, not knowing how that process works. Nala then realized that there was never anyone in his life to give him the talk, so he had no idea about what he was in for.

"Why don't you ask my mother some other time" Nala said knowing that her mother would do a much better job than her on explaining the topic. Simba chuckled a little at how Nala was acting but didn't want to make her uncomfortable or embarrassed so decided that he would just ask Sarafina some other time.

"Ok" Simba said giving Nala a smile, hoping to ease her nerves a little. He could tell that she was a little nervous right now and was trying to see if he couldn't help her relax a little, and was pleased to see that she gave him a smile back.

"What's that?" Simba said as he brought his paw up and brushed it over Nala's chin, making her wondered what was on her.

"What's what's? What do you see?" Nala asked wanting to know what he saw on her so she could get it off.

"I don't it looks like a... let me get a closer look" Simba said as he brought his face down towards her. Nala had no idea what was on her and just wanted him to get it off her so she could see what it was.

Nala was watching Simba examine her chin before he suddenly moved up and placed a kiss on her lips, which she instinctually returned. She felt Simba pull away and wondered why he did that when he was trying to figure out what was on her chin.

"Oh, it was just a kiss" Simba said giving her a playful look before walking past her knowing that she would chase him down. Nala then realized that he purposely did that so he could end up giving her a kiss like that, and was both surprised and delighted that he decided to something like that. This was exactly what she wanted him to do when she asked him to be more outgoing and romantic.

Nala sat up and turned around, starting to follow him. She was currently planning if she wanted to play some game with him, or just try and talk to him for the remainder of the walk back to Pride Rock.

"So what are you going to do when you get back?" Nala asked wondering if he had anything planned, or if he was just going to lay around and relax until something either happened or the day ended.

"Not sure yet" Simba said, looking over at Nala, before looking back towards Pride Rock to see that Tama was storming out of the cave, and down the hill. Simba could tell that she was pissed, and wondered what had pissed her off this time. Simba watched as she locked her eyes on him, and immediately started to power walk towards him, telling him that he was probably going to be busy.

"She's pissed" Simba whispered to Nala, who was also watching Tama in her fit like state.

"Well looks like you've found something to do... so I'm going to uh... play with my brother now" Nala said as she quickly turned his head towards her and placed a kiss on his muzzle before exiting into the tall grass, not wanting Tama to get all pissy with her. Nala knew how Tama got when she was mad, and wanted nothing to do with it.

Simba knew that Nala didn't want to deal with Tama, and knew that it would be up to him to calm her down. Simba looked back at Tama and saw that she was nearly in front of him now, and saw that she was practically jogging now. Simba knew that he was going to be busy for a while and he wouldn't have a choice in the matter.

"Come here! Now!" Tama yelled at Simba. Simba was a little taken back by this, but knew that she wasn't mad at him and when translated to her not enraged self, it meant 'I need to talk to you'.

Simba quickly started to follow Tama, not wanting her to get angry at him knowing how quickly she could when she was in her current state. Simba looked over towards her face and saw that she had a death glare on and was looking ahead. Simba started to realize that she was walking in the direction of his hideout, probably wanting some privacy. Even though everyone knew about it, the only people who ever went there were Sarafina, Nala, and Tama, so it was rather private.

Upon entering his hideout, Simba sat down with his back up against the tall brush and watched as Tama paced around his hideout, muttering inaudible gibberish every so often. Simba wanted to ask her what was wrong but knew that he would make her upset, but if he didn't, it would only make her more upset.

"Tama?" Simba asked using his soft and soothing voice to try and make it sound like he wanted to help her. Simba watched as Tama looked over at him with the same glare on her face, but knew that she wasn't really glaring at him, she was just generally pissed at something.

"Get this! I wake up from a nap to see that Malka is just being lazy, so I go up to him and ask him if he wanted to do anything because Chumvi is Chumvi and no one likes him, Tojo can't take his eyes off of Ariya for more than five seconds, Ariya is playing with Mheetu, and Kula is talking with Chumvi, so me and Malka are the only ones who aren't doing anything! Anyway, I ask him if he wants to do something and he just says no! No! Like what in the hell do you do all day?! Sleep?! Then I ask him if he minds if I join him, and then that asshole says no again! I ask him why and then he has the nerve to tell me that he would get more sleep if he was alone! Like, hey asshole, you're not the only person on this planet and it doesn't revolve around you, so, like, I don't know, maybe, BE A NICE PERSON FOR ONCE?! God, he is nothing but a lazy, selfish, idiotic... weak... small... dumb lion!" Tama said yelling towards Simba about what was pissing her off, running out of things to call Malka at the end.

Simba was a little confused by this. He was certain that Malka and Tama were dating and he had even heard Tama say that she loved him, so he was wondering why they were having this sort of problem. "Aren't you guys dating though?" Simba asked, making sure that he was up to date on their relationship status.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I won't get mad at him. If anything he should be a better boyfriend and want to spend more time with me" Tama said, knowing she sounded like a bratty girl, but Malka didn't really spend all that much time with her compared to Simba and Nala, but then again, Simba and Nala's relationship was far stronger than theirs.

"Oh, Oh… Is there anything I can do?" Simba said trying to be helpful.

"Help me beat him up?" Tama said liking that idea a lot. Tama watched as Simba wore a conflicted face, before sitting up and walking over to her. Tama gave him a bit of a glare as she was just mad at everything right now, and watched as he gave her an emotional look in the eyes, which she did not return. Tama watched as he brought his paw up like he was going to rest it on her cheek, and she swatted it away the second she felt him touch her.

"Don't touch me!" Tama screamed at him, before punching him in the side of the face to prove her point, causing him to recoil and turn away. Tama had no idea why she punched him, but she was just so angry that it felt good to hit something. Tama watched him as he was holding the left side of his face and watched as a stream of blood came out of his mouth as he looked down, most definitely from a cut on his gum. Then it hit Tama, and she realized what she had done, and began to feel scared, worried, and guilty. "Simba I-I'm so s-sorry it was an accident I d-din't mean to!" Tama said as she got up and quickly walked over to where he was. Tama looked down to see that there was a cut on the left side of his lower gum, but it wasn't at all bad and the only reason it looked so bad was that he trapped the blood in his mouth before spitting it out. Tama then looked towards his left cheek and saw that it was red and bruised from being punched so hard, and felt even more guilty.

"No, It's ok, I'm fine" Simba said standing up, but making sure that he didn't come in contact with her again as he didn't know if she was still mad or not. He knew that Tama was just worked up and she didn't mean to do what she did, so he didn't even think much of it. "Hey, I'm sorry for touching you" Simba said, feeling bad that he upset her, and watched as she wore the most conflicted face that he had ever seen before.

"Stop it Simba! It's my fault. You tried to help but I was just being a bitch about it and I hurt you because of that" Tama said looking away as she felt the urge to cry. She couldn't cry. Crying was for the weak, and she needed to be strong, but no matter how hard she tried, that feeling started to make it's way from her stomach, to her chest, and then to her face.

"Hey, don't say that" Simba said in a soothing voice, ignoring the pain in his cheek for Tamas sake. The bleeding had stopped so he had nothing to worry about. When Tama heard his voice, it only wanted to make her cry even more. It was so warm and soft, comfortable and protective. She wanted to be carried away by it, but she wouldn't let that happen.

"No. It's true. I can't trust love anymore. Love is... love is... love is weak and pointless. It causes nothing but pain and suffering" Tama said, having never been able to enjoy the true feeling love had to offer when it was pure.

"Love is amazing. It makes us strong, gives us motivation. It gives us a reason to always push forward and without it, no one would be happy" Simba said in the same soothing voice.

Tama felt a tear leave her eye and run down her face, and was trying her hardest at this point not to cry, but she was slowly failing. "I don't need it, I don't want it" Tama said with a sharp quiver in her voice. Simba heard this quiver and saw the tear, and knew what he had to do. He was going to have to break her and force her to cry.

"I love you Tama. I love everything about you. You're talented, funny, smart, creative, beautiful, and playful. You have an amazing heart and an amazing smile. You make me smile all the time and you give me a reason to always push forwards. I know that I can always trust you and that if I ever need you, you'll be there for me" Simba said using the most soothing and warm voice he had, trying his hardest to break her, and was more than successful at doing so.

Tama felt the warm tears start to pour out for her eyes, and felt her legs start to go weak. Tama felt so helpless at that instance and had no idea why that broke her. Tama quickly turned around and buried her face in his soft and warm chest, seeking comfort and protection. Tama sobbed into his chest and felt him wrap her into a hug, and felt her tears start to come out even faster and harder. Months worth of emotions and pain were coming out all at once, and Tama had no way to control it, all she could do was cry, and all Simba could do was comfort her.

"It's gonna be ok Tama. I'm here for you, and I'll always be here for you. Just let it out. Cry all you need to. Don't be scared to open up to those who want to help you. You can't do everything on your own, so please just let me help you work through this" Simba said, telling Tama he was only trying to help her. Simba felt her continue to cry and shake and held on to her for all he was worth. He could hear that she was saying something, but through all the sobs, chokes, quivers, and the muffled sound from her face being buried in his chest, he didn't have the slightest clue as to what.

Simba didn't know how long he was holding her before she started to calm down, but It was a very long time. Simba felt her crying start to slow down and she started to shake less violently until she soon stopped entirely. After countless minutes went by, the only thing he could hear was the sound of her hiccuping and her breathing. He could feel her warm breath across the soaked surface of his chest.

Simba had no idea if Tama had calmed down enough to where he would dare let go to check on her. Simba knew that the only thing keeping her calm right now was him, and feared that if he made any movements that made it seem like he was trying to get away from her, it would cause her to erupt again.

Simba carefully and slowly started to pull away from Tama and felt her cling onto him refusing to let go, starting to feel a few tears hit his chest at the same time. Simba realized that she was beginning to panic and quickly started to wrap her back up, not wanting her to freak out again.

"Hey, let's lie down and just relax a little" Simba said trying to get her to realize that he was only trying to lie down. Simba quickly let go of her and laid down before she followed his lead and laid down next to him, and she returned her face to the exact same spot that it had currently been.

Simba knew that Tama was in a lot of pain right now, similar to what he used to be in, and just wanted to help her, and was glad to see that she was accepting his help. Simba felt her start to shift around and wondered what she was trying to do. Simba loosened his hug on her and she shifted up a bit so that she was eye level with him.

Simba looked at her face to see that her face had tear stains running down for her eyes and parts of her face looked matted and messed up. Simba felt bad for her and really didn't know what he could to cheer her up. He could just lay around with her and let her sulk all day, but Simba didn't like the idea of her suffering if she didn't have to.

"So what are your plans today?" Simba asked, trying the strategy of pretending like nothing was wrong to try and change the mood and conversation.

"Cry" Tama said looking into his eyes, wondering why he would ask such a stupid question. Tama knew that he had no idea what to do, and she was in no mood to teach him something new, so she just gave up on the topic.

"Well, wanna..." Simba said trying to think of something to do. Tama looked away from his eyes and towards the mark that was on his cheek and felt bad again for punching him like that.

"Sorry for punching you in the face" Tama said once she realized that Simba couldn't come up with something that she'd be in the mood for.

"Don't be, it was my fault" Simba said, taking the blame for it. He should have asked for her permission before he even thought of touching her, so he deserved what he got.

Simba watched as she let out a little snicker, before letting a small smile come to her face, making him smile a little.

"You're just so selfless, and I just don't understand why" Tama said before getting up, and watched as Simba got up. Tama looked towards his chest and saw the tear stains she left behind and felt embarrassed that she cried like that in front of him, and into him.

"Feeling any better?" Simba asked.

"Yes, thank you" Tama said as she took a step forward and gave him a nuzzle, in which he returned, in which she continued. Tama loved nuzzling Simba for many reasons, such as him being a good nuzzler, his fur was soft and warm, and he made her feel safe and protected. Tama relaxed into the nuzzle before pulling away after a few moments.

Tama set her sights on Pride Rock and let out a sigh when she did this, knowing that Malka was mad at her and that she was going to have to confront him sooner or later about it. Tama wished that she could just avoid having to work things over with Malka and that all the drama and problems would just fix themselves and go away without her having to do anything, but that's not how the world worked. If she avoided him and tried to run away from her problems, she would only make things worse.

"It'll be ok. Just talk with him and try to fix whatever is wrong with him, because right now he's wrong and you right. You've done pretty much nothing wrong so if he still wants to act immature and mad, then that can be his problem" Simba said giving her some support. Tama looked over at Simba and gave him a smile, grateful that he said that. She was glad that Simba understood how she was feeling right now, and that he was here for her, just like she promised.

Tama licked the top of her paws and started to try and rub her tear stains away with her saliva so no one could tell that she was crying, but it wasn't working all that well, and there was no way that she would enter Pride Rock with fresh tear stains on her face.

"You do realize that there's a pond here, right?" Simba said as he walked over to the small pond that was located in his hideout and started to wash out the tear stains on his chest. Tama turned around and looked over at the pond, and felt a little dumb that she had forgotten about that.

"Oh, yea, right" Tama said with an embarrassed chuckle at the end, wondering how that slipped her mind. Tama walked over to where Simba was standing before and began to wash off her face and enjoyed that refreshing feeling it gave her.

"Well, good luck with Malka, and if you need me, I'll be… well… walking around, as always, so I'll keep an ear out for you" Simba said as he started to leave his hideout, knowing that Tama needed to speak with Malka alone. Simba didn't understand why but only knew that when it came to talks about problems that involved love, the two people needed to work it out together alone. Having other people around them when they talked doesn't help them as most people would think.

"Thank you, again, Simba. For everything" Tama said as she flashed him a smile. Simba looked back and gave her a nod, before looking back ahead and walking out of his hideout.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was walking through the tall grass and could see that the main trail to and from Pride Rock was just in front of him, and he was about to reach it. Simba could hear that someone was walking towards where he was about to exit, but he couldn't tell who. Simba exited the tall grass and walked right into someone by mistake, which surprised him. He was tracking their location with his hearing and heard that they hadn't reached his point yet, so had no idea how he managed to hit them.

"Sorry" Simba said as he got up, slightly gripping his side in pain. The wound the hyena had left him hadn't healed up yet, and it still hurt like hell, but he didn't tell anyone that.

"It's ok" Simba heard, and was confused by the voice it belonged to. It was feminine, and he could tell that the person he bumped into was a lion, and judging by their size, they were around his age. The voice didn't belong to either Kula, Tama, or Nala, and the person was too small and sounded far too young to be one of the older lionesses, and then Simba realized that it was Ariya.

He hadn't spoken to her except that one time when he met her, and the only thing he knew about her was her name. Simba had only seen her a few times after that, and he had almost forgotten that she even came to the pride lands to stay for a while.

Simba looked back up to see that Ariya was over at him with an unsure and concerned look, and was starting to wonder if he had done something that offended or upset her. Unlike the other females, he didn't know her or her boundaries, so he had no idea as to how she was feeling right now.

"Are you ok?" Ariya said, observing that he was gripping his side in pain and wore a painful look on his face. Ariya knew that they had hardly bumped into each other hard enough to inflict the type of pain Simba wore on his face, so she was wondering why he looked to be in so much pain.

"Yea, I'm fine" Simba said as he removed his paw from his hurt side, and Ariya got a look at the wound that was there. Four claw marks that looked to have penetrated deep into the side of him, and that's when she realized that he must have hit his side during his fall and that's why he looked to be in pain. Ariya heard the story about how he defended Mheetu from hyenas and was hurt in the process, but he seemed to be fine up until now.

"Your side" Ariya said, motioning towards the wound on his side. Simba knew that she could see the wound and tell that he was in pain, so if he lied, he would only ruin the first impressions she would have of him. He didn't want to try and lie or play it off, because Ariya didn't know him and he didn't want her thinking that he was some lier or untrustworthy person.

"Yea, it hurts, but I'll be ok" Simba said, avoiding eye contact. It only hurt when he disturbed it, so his plan was to not mess with it and it wouldn't be a problem. Simba could tell that Ariya was trying to establish eye contact with him, but he was far too nervous to return it and could feel the uncomfortable feeling in the atmosphere.

"Well, I uh… gotta go" Simba said as he felt increasingly nervous as the seconds went by and didn't feel like he could man up and have a conversation with her. Simba began to move but stopped when he heard her call out.

"Simba wait!" Ariya said suddenly, wondering why he seemed to be so shy and weird. He was strong, fast, smart, and intimidating. She had heard the stories of him fighting the hyenas and heard the stories about his strength, such as when he used one arm to throw Kula over his head onto a grass bank so she wouldn't fall off a rock and into a river. She saw muscles on him that she didn't even know lions had, and his veins looked like vines on the side of a tree. He had two large scars on his chest and would soon have one large one on his stomach, and little scars every so often. When Ariya saw and heard the stories about Simba, it made her want to fear what he was capable of. It made think that he was someone who was not to messed with, but he wasn't. He was gentle, caring, loving. He had a great smile and apparently had extraordinarily soft fur. Ariya couldn't make sense of him, and wanted to finally get to know him, without anyone else around so she could see just who he really was.

"I actually want to talk to you" Ariya said seeing that she had his attention. Right now, Simba was a few yards away from her, so he looked to be eye level with her. Ariya saw that Simba turned back and faced her, and she began to walk up to him. Ariya watched as he appeared to get a lot bigger a lot quicker, and soon she was standing right in front of him and felt small. Ariya felt like Simba dwarfed her, and she began to feel a little nervous, knowing that he could end her without a fight if he wanted to any day, but she knew that he wouldn't do that, and she had to be brave.

"Wanna take a walk while we talk?" Ariya said, respecting his authority. He was bigger, faster, stronger, smarter, tougher, braver, and more experienced than her in many things, and decided that she would let him call all the shots until she got ready to talk.

"Sure" Simba replied quietly, still unable to look her in the eyes. Ariya was confused by his response, because he seemed to be nervous, just like when she first met him. Ariya decided that she was going to do something beyond suicidal, and she was going to try and force him to look at her. Ariya knew that he could beat her in a second, but she was going to take a very gentle and careful approach, hoping that he wouldn't be aggravated by it.

Ariya slowly brought her paw up and rested in on his cheek. Ariya could feel a shaking feeling between her paw and his cheek but realized that she wasn't the one who was shaking, it was Simba. Ariya gentle and carefully started to move his face up so that he as looking her in the eyes. Ariya was surprised to see that he let her do this without resisting in the slightest and wondered why he didn't try to use his power to boss her around as the other males did.

Ariya looked into Simba's eyes and saw that he was looking back into hers. She was studying his eyes and could tell that he was studying hers. Ariya felt him stop shaking and wondered why he was avoiding eye contact up until now. Aria decided that she was going to test some of the things that Kula had told her about him to see if they were really true.

Ariya started moved her paw from his cheek towards his forehead and moved some of his mane out of the way so she could see his face better. Ariya could feel how soft his fur was and was at a loss of words for it. She had never felt anything so soft before, and it amazed her how it was possible for her to be so soft. Ariya had heard from the mothers that really young cubs who were no older than a month had super soft fur, but that went away with time. Not even Mheetu's fur was this soft, and Simba was almost twice as old as he was.

"Wow" Ariya said, confusing Simba. Simba stood there, as stiff as a tree, feeling as Ariya was playing around with his fur and mane, and was looking down at his paws once again. He didn't know what she wanted to talk about or what are was doing, but he decided that he was just going to go along with it so he didn't upset her.

Ariya removed her paw from his face and rested it back on the ground. Once again, he was staring at his paws again, refusing to make eye contact. Ariya began to move her paw again to move his head so he was looking at her, but saw him make eye contact with her and hold it before she lifted her paw off the ground.

"Hey Ariya!" Nala said as she finally found Ariya but then was confused to see that Simba was in front of her. Both Ariya and Simba looked over to see that Nala was walking up to them.

"Wait here" Ariya said to Simba, and saw that he looked over at her before looking back at Nala. Ariya sat up and walked over to Nala, and could tell that she was confused.

"Let me guess. He won't talk, won't make eye contact, and acts more like a rock than a living being?" Nala said with a chuckle, realizing that Ariya was trying to get to know Simba.

"Yea, I wanted to do it on my own so I could get to better know him. Ya know, because he couldn't just agree with whoever else was here, but I don't think that's gonna happen" Ariya said at a lost as to how she was going to get Simba to open up to her.

"Let me see if I can help" Nala said, walking past Ariya, bet felt Ariya place a paw on her chest and pull her back.

"Wait, he isn't going to hurt me is he. He's… bigger than the others and looks a little… intimidating" Ariya said with a nervous chuckle, knowing that Nala knew more about him than probably anyone else did, so she would most likely have her answer.

Ariya watched as Nala chuckled, and knew that she was up to something. "Watch this" Nala said with a smile, and Ariya got the idea that Nala was about to do something to prove a point.

Ariya watched as Nala walked up to Simba, and gently pushed him over before getting on top of him a pinning him to the ground. Ariya watched in amazement as Simba allowed her to do this without even trying to fight back. Ariya continued to watch as Nala started to kiss and nuzzle him, and watched as he went along with it. Ariya then watched as Nala stood back up with Simba and startled to nuzzle in his neck and chest, and she watched as he nuzzled her back. Then she realized that they looked to be mid-conversation, but Ariya couldn't tell what they were talking about.

Ariya then watched as Nala suddenly grabbed Simba by the cheek and positioned his face directly in front of hers. Ariya watched as Nala got firm with him and looked to be talking with him in a serious manner. Ariya watched as Simba shot her a few glances during the talk, and had a feeling that they were talking about her. Ariya watched as Simba nodded, and then Nala proceeded to… make out with him for some time before finally start to walk back. Ariya averted her eyes the second she saw Nala's tongue enter his mouth, as she found that kind of lovey-dovey stuff nasty. Ariya hadn't ever kissed before, but she already knew that she would like traditional kissing over making out.

"I talked with him, and he's a lot more relaxed now. Just talk with him and it'll be fine" Nala said. Ariya nodded and watched as Nala walked past her, but heard her suddenly talk.

"Oh also, I was going to ask you about something, but it seems you're already on it" Nala said before leaving, wanting to tell Ariya why she was looking for her. Ariya realized that Nala wanted her to get to know Simba better, but she was already trying to do that, and Ariya smiled a little at how the world worked some times.

Ariya walked up to Simba and was happy to see that he was making eye contact with her as she was approaching him. Ariya watched how Nala was with him and concluded that she had nothing to be afraid of. He was a gentle giant that would protect her rather than hurt her.

"Hey" Simba said once she got close to him, and watched as she seemed to be a little surprised. Simba watched as she gave him a little smile, before motioning down the trial. Simba got the idea as sat up and began walking next to her.

"Hey" Ariya said looking over at him, and watched as he looked back at her. Ariya started to walk again and looked over to see that Simba was walking alongside her, pacing her.

"Hey" Simba said, again. "Hey, um, sorry about being all weird and what not at first. I just get like that sometimes. I used to be bullied a lot and what not so I sorta got trust issues" Simba said explaining why he was acting strange at first.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that" Ariya said, remembering something like that when she was visiting briefly before. Ariya didn't really want to know any details at that, so didn't ask him to explain. "Hey, I just wanted to get to know you and whatnot. Maybe talk for a bit" Ariya said wondering if he'd be ok with that.

"Yea, Nala told me. She says you're a lot like her and Kula. She said you're goofy and playful like Kula, but also like some seriousness like Nala" Simba said sort of strangely. It wasn't that he was wrong, it was just that Ariya was wondering why he was telling her what he knew about her already if she was going to tell him anyway.

"Yea…" Ariya replied with a little chuckle. "What else did she tell you" Ariya asked wondering what Nala said to prepare him.

"Not much really, besides the fact that you get nervous and stutter a lot when boys talk to you about romance and love, so I shouldn't try and talk to you about that" Simba said awkwardly, wondering if she was going to confirm or deny that, if she made any comment on it at all.

"Whaa… I mean well… Yea, but what girl wouldn't get nervous. And viseversa with guys talking about girls. It works both ways" Airya said trying to play it off. It was true that she did get nervous when talking about boys at times, more than the normal lioness, but she never liked to admit it and she didn't want to make it look like a weakness that Simba would use to his advantage to change the subject.

"Fair enough… anyway, do you wanna start off talking… I'm not really good at it" Simba said, confusing Ariya a little. She couldn't tell if he was saying that he was bad at talking, or bad at starting conversations. But nonetheless, she wasn't against trying to see if she couldn't try and talk to him. Simba then heard a sound to there left, and listened towards it. It sounded like someone was walking next to them but were behind the tall grass, and Simba knew that it was Nala listening in on their conversation. Simba smiled a little at how nosey Nala could get at times, always wanting to know what was going on, but he didn't mind that.

"Sure, well, first off, when did you become part of this pride? Not that you weren't a part of it before, but like when did you become friends with everyone and whatnot?" Ariya said trying to ask it in a nice way. She was still a little unsure of his boundaries and didn't want to make him upset.

"Awhile ago. I don't remember the exact day, as I was slowly introduced and what not, but it was kind of one of those times where you just fall into place naturally" Simba said not being able to remember a time when it was easy to identify if he was part of the pride or not.

"And how much longer after that until you met Nala" Ariya asked, wondering when he first met her and fell in love with her. Out of the few times, Ariya had seen Simba around Pride Rock, Nala had always been with him, so she assumed they had a strong relationship.

"I met her before I became friends with everyone. If it wasn't for her, I would still be sneaking in at night for food and talking to myself" Simba said with a little chuckle, and this confused Ariya. Ariya didn't understand what he meant by 'sneak in for food and talking to myself'.

"What do you mean?" Ariya asked curiously as to what he meant by what he said.

"I used to sneak into Pride Rock late at night for food so people wouldn't see me and make fun of me, and I used to talk to myself as if I were different people so I didn't go crazy from being alone all day" Simba said, not really trying to conceal his past to her. If she was going to stay for a while, someone was going to say something at some point, so it was better to just let her know now before she got confused in the future.

"Oh, I'm sorry" Ariya said, not knowing how that must have felt. She admitted to having an easy life, always having either family or friends with her. Being the daughter of the king sure had its perks, so she couldn't imagine having to wait until night to eat and having to talk to herself because she had no friends to talk to.

"Eh, what's done is done, and there's no point in worrying about the past when you have the future to think about" Simba said, not mad or anything about his past. Simba knew that there was nothing that could be done about the past, so instead of thinking about what things used to be like, he could think about what things were like now.

"Yea, but does it ever hurt?" Ariya said, wondering if his past ever haunted him. Ariya knew nothing about how bad his past really was, and she didn't want to know, but all she could think about was what if she was in his place and how she would have turned out to be. Ariya hated to be alone, and it was one of her fears. She felt so vulnerable and scared when she was alone and didn't really care who she was with, but as long as she wasn't alone, she was fine.

"At times, yes. But from the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it" Simba said explaining why he didn't worry so much about the past. Ariya felt wiser upon hearing that and noticed the position of the sun. It was nearing midday, and she had a date soon.

"Well, Thanks for talking, but I got a… uh… meeting with… Sarafina soon so I have to get going" Ariya said before leaning over and giving him a nuzzle in his neck, finding it unbelievably soft. Ariya pulled back and nodded, before turning away and running towards the spot she told Tojo she would meet him.

Simba stood there surprised by what Ariya had done. He wouldn't have expected her to have nuzzled him like that when she barely knew him. From what he understood, nuzzles could mean three different things. Sometimes they showed love. Sometimes they showed trust, and other times they showed comfort, neither of which he would have expected her to need of him or have for him. Simba then remembered back to that sound he heard and knew that Nala was still in the tall grass, probably waiting to see what he would do next.

Simba wanted to mess around with her but knew that she wouldn't like that, but the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to do it. Simba decided that enough was enough, and he was just going to call her out.

"Nala" Simba said, looking right at where the sound she was making was coming from.

"Close" A voice said, and Sarafina exited from the tall grass. Simba was a little surprised to see that it was Sarafina who had been listening in on them, as he had heard her on multiple accounts, and she wasn't known to be clumsy at all.

"Oh, it's you" Simba said, and got a nod from Sarafina. "Hey, I actually need to talk to you about something. It's about Nala and I" Simba said and got a curious look from Sarafina. Simba hasn't needed to talk to Sarafina about anything related to him and Nala in a while, so Sarafina was intrigued to hear what he had to say.

Sarafina motioned down the trail, and Simba got the idea of what she was saying. Simba and Sarafina both started to walk down the trail that Simba was currently walking on, about to have a once in a lifetime conversation…

 **-(IMPORTANT DON'T SKIP!)-**

 **(Read the entire thing)**

 **Well, that's one way to end a story. Hope you all enjoyed, and if you did, hope you enjoy the rest of the story. As I said before, I got a discord and a discord server for this fanfic now. My discord is Mr_Toast#1679 so just message me there if that's easier for you guys. And finally, once again, Simba's Pain now has its own discord community where you guys can talk to each other, write reviews there, talk about the story, or random crap, and other things related. The link to the discord server is bit. ly /SimbasPain without** **the space between bit and the .ly and the space between .ly and / and caps does matter** **.** **and caps does matter.** **If that doesn't work, just add me as a friend and ill invite you directly So that's all for this time and I hope to see you all again and hope to see some of you in the new discord server, will all that out of the way and done, Mr_Toast out!**


	16. Kiss me

**Simba's pain Chapter 16**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back, everyone. Hope y'all are doing well and just want to say thanks for all the support you guys show me and thanks to those of you who left me a supportive review or gave me feedback of any kind. So there's not much to be said here this time, So with all that said and done, Enjoy!**

 **My Discord- Mr_Toast#1679**

 **Story Discord - bit. ly /SimbasPain**

Simba was currently walking back to Pride Rock after having an uncomfortable conversation with Sarafina about him being betrothed and what part of his duties would include as the future king. Simba wondered why it was such a hard, yet seemingly easy job to be a king. It seemed like there were so many things to do and you would think that a person would be overwhelmed with those responsibilities, but for the most part, a king wasn't all that busy and his only full-time job is to just be on the lookout for danger and trouble in his kingdom. Luckily the pride lands were known for peace and cooperation, so the king rarely had to ever deal with conflicts amongst aminals.

Simba walked up the hill that led into the cave and saw that there were currently only four people inside. Malka and Tama were off in one corner of the cave, looking to be talking to each other and seemed to be doing much better, and Nala and Mheetu were towards the back where Mheetu was trying to push Nala over, but he wasn't strong enough yet.

"It's not fair. You're bigger than me and I never win" Mheetu said as he tried his hardest to push Nala over so he could pin her, all the while Nala was just laughing to herself at how hard he was trying.

"That's the benefit of being the eldest sibling" Nala said with a smirk, irritating Mheetu.

"You just enjoy it. One day we'll both be grown up and I'll be a lot bigger and stronger than you" Mheetu said in a bragging tone. One day he was going to be all grown up, and since he was a male, he was going to be bigger and stronger than Nala so he would be able to pin her down every time.

"Yes one day you will but by then I'll be the queen so you'll have to do everything I say" Nala said rubbing in the fact that he couldn't just run up to the queen and tackle her without expecting to receive a punishment for it. Nala watched as Mheetu wore a defeated look once again as he realized that she was right and he would once again be at a disadvantage. Nala looked up and saw that Simba was currently walking over to her and she gave him a warm smile, in which he returned.

"Hey" Nala said towards Simba as he made his way over towards her.

"Hey" Simba said as he walked up to her and gave her a little nuzzle, which he noticed that she enjoyed. Simba looked down to see that Mheetu was looking up at them during their nuzzle with a curious and confused look, and Simba wondered what was on his mind.

"Are you guys dating?" Mheetu asked as he watched the two nuzzle each other passionately, knowing that the type on nuzzling they were doing was really only done between to people who loved each other a lot. Nala knew Mheetu already knew the answer, but he just wanted to hear it out loud so he could feel better when he went to tease them.

"Yes" Nala said, waiting for him. Nala saw the immatureness flash across his eyes and knew that he was about to start teasing them.

"Aww, you two are in love. How adorable" Mheetu said trying to irritate them. He wasn't trying to be a total jerk but was only trying to have some fun with them and especially get back at Nala for all the times she beat him at a game.

"So where's your girlfriend?" Nala said back, not recalling that he had one. Nala watched as Mheetu's face went from humorous to salty in a matter of seconds, and watched as he tried to come up with a comeback.

Simba shifted his attention between Nala and Mheetu as they both appeared to be coming up with names or things to say about the other to make them mad, and wondered if all siblings where like this or only they were.

"Well?" Nala said rushing Mheetu, putting pressure on him to come up with an answer. Mheetu gave Nala a defeated look before letting out an irritated sigh and walking away. No matter how hard he tried she would always find a way to beat him in every way possible, but one day he was going to beat her and he wouldn't stop trying until he did.

Nala smiled as she watched him walk away, knowing that he didn't have a response besides the one that told her he didn't have one, happy that she had won once again. Nala never really tried, and since Mheetu was young and didn't think things through that well, all he had to do to beat her was give it more thought and he would be victories for once.

"So what are you doing for the rest of the day?" Nala asked as she looked back up at Simba and began to start licking under his chin where there was a bit of dried mud on his fur.

"I don't know, whatever you want to" Simba said, as always. Simba never really made plans, and just messed around until either the day was over or someone came to him with something to do.

"Whatever I want?" Nala asked with a mischievous tone, and Simba got the impression that he was going to be in for a very romantic night. Simba knew that Nala enjoyed nothing more than being able to spend her evening with him alone expressing her love for him in romantic ways, and that's what she was most likely planning to do now.

"Um… sure?" Simba asked not really caring what they did, as long as she was happy. Simba rarely got bored, so as long as Nala was happy, he was happy, and if she was having fun, it usually meant he was too.

Simba watched as Nala's eyes lit up, telling him that she got an idea and by the way her eyes lit up it meant that it was something that she really wanted to do. "Follow me" Nala said as she took off running out of the cave, and Simba quickly took off after her to catch up.

Simba was surprised to see that she was full on running, and wondered where she was taking him in such a hurry. "Come on Simba faster!" Nala said as she ran into the tall grass, and Simba lost sight of her. Simba slowed down a little as he entered the tall bush, not being able to tell where she was as he was making to much noise to hear her. Simba exited the tall grass into a clearing and saw that Nala was now far ahead of him and was about to go down a hill, meaning he was going to lose sight of her again. "What are you waiting for? Come on!" Nala shouted while laughing, wondering if her little plan was going to work.

Simba took off sprinting in her direction, not wanting to end up losing her and having to track her down while she would be doing the same thing, walking circles around the place trying to find each other. Simba saw that he was gaining on her fast, and couldn't remember that last time he actually ran this fast. Simba usually went for distance not speed, so it had been a while since he tested exactly how fast he was, but it felt faster than he remembered.

Simba reached the top of the hill and saw that there was more tall grass in front of him, and could tell where Nala had entered it and entered it in the same spot. Simba was running and saw the end of the tall grass, but not what was in front of it, and knew that Nala couldn't be all that far ahead now that he had been sprinting to catch back up. Simba exited the tall grass and saw that Nala was sitting down and upright, waiting patiently, twenty or so feet in front of him.

Simba had been sprinting when he exited the tall grass and had no way of stopping in time, and did the only thing he could think of. Simba slowed himself down as fast as he could and aimed to the right of her, not wanting to hit her and end up hurting her.

Nala watched as Simba flew by her while digging his claws into the ground and skidding as he came to a stop. Nala slowly turned around and saw that Simba had come to a stop behind her, and was looking at her with a confused look. Nala felt the urge to laugh at how her plan worked, and she was successful in scaring him a little. She knew that she could have gotten hurt if Simba had run into her, but she knew that his reflexes were fast enough to detect her and deviate in time.

"Surprise" Nala said with a little laugh as she watched Simba give her a confused and startled look.

"Uhh...?" Simba said confused by why she ran here and then just stopped like that.

"It was a game" Nala said while laughing as she got up and walked over to Simba, before pushing him over and laying on top of him like she had done countless time before.

"What game was that?" Simba asked knowing that it wasn't tag, because she would have kept running. It wasn't hide and seek because she wasn't hiding and he saw her a few times while she was running, and Simba didn't know any other games where someone would run away like that.

"Kiss me and I'll tell you" Nala said as she brought her face down towards him, but didn't close the distance all the way. Nala knew that her plan would work because she was laying on top of him and he wasn't going to push her off if he didn't have her permission because he was just like that, so she knew she would get her way.

"What?" Simba said confused, wondering if he was understanding her correctly.

"Kiss me and I'll tell you what game that was" Nala said wanting him to kiss her already. Nala watched as Simba looked at her with a confused look, before placing a quick kiss on her muzzle that lasted maybe a second before pulling back and looking back at her.

"A real kiss" Nala said with a chuckle, unsatisfied by his performance. Nala watched as he came back up and felt him connect his muzzle with hers. Nala felt the kiss last, and began to kiss him back, and held onto the kiss. Nala enjoyed the kiss, and it more than satisfied her, but she still wasn't completely happy, she wanted more. After a few seconds, Nala felt Simba start to pull back and Nala looked down at him and saw he was wearing a look that told her he was ready to hear the name of the game.

"So…?" Simba asked, wanting to know what game that was.

"I don't know. It was a good kiss, but it wasn't enough" Nala said giving him a playful smirk and got a confused look in return.

"Well, what more could I do?" Simba asked wondering what else Nala wanted. She and for a kiss and he gave her two, so he was wondering how she still wasn't satisfied.

"Makeout" Nala said, and got a nervous look for him, and found his look of nervousness to be adorable. Nala could feel that Simba was shaking a little under her and found it so cute that he was nervous over making out with her. "Just like I showed you" Nala said and gave him a look telling him that she was ready. Nala looked into Simba's eyes and could tell that he didn't know where to start, but she wasn't going to teach him, she was going to let him learn as he went.

 **(Makeout out scene In case you don't want to read it)**

Nala watched as Simba gave her an unsure look before he slowly started to lean up and brought his face up to hers. Nala felt the kiss start like normal and was waiting for his tongue to brush over her lips and teeth so she knew when to open her mouth. Nala felt his mouth open but didn't feel his tongue yet, and half of her wanted to use the opportunity to use her own tongue while his mouth was open, but she wanted him to do it. Nala felt as Simba's tongue lightly brushed over her teeth and then dart back into his mouth, and Nala opened her own mouth and felt the urge to laugh at how he did the nervous tongue dart thing. Nala felt Simba's tongue slowly enter her mouth, and after what seemed like an eternity, it was finally in her mouth, but he wasn't moving it. Nala started to move her own tongue and began to move his tongue with her own. Nala loved the feeling of his warm tongue on hers and never wanted it to end. Nala slid her tongue past his, into his own mouth, and started to let her tongue explore it. Nala felt Simba start to move his tongue around her mouth, tasting and feeling the different parts of it.

The two were now fully making out with Nala pinning Simba on the ground, and the only thing that would be able to separate them was their need for air. Nala felt the urge to breathe start to form in her lungs, and she began to pull away. The seal their two mouths had created that prevented the air from entering was broken, and Nala continued to pull back but felt Simba's paw reach around her and hold her head in place. Nala was surprised that he was actually brave enough to do this, and realized that he was currently breathing, despite the fact that his tongue was still in her mouth. Nala kept her tongue inside his mouth, and breathed in and felt the cold fresh air enter her lungs and then she exhaled it. Nala hadn't even thought about this before. It never crossed her mind that she could have been able to breathe during a kiss so she wouldn't have to end it.

Once Nala had enough air, she closed the gap between their mouths and felt the kiss continue again without ever having to be broken. Nala was enjoying the kiss so much and it had gotten to the point where they had backed off just a little so they could breathe numerous times, but the kiss stopped since it started.

Nala was floating in heaven with the feeling of Simba moving his tongue around in her mouth fearlessly when she suddenly felt him roll them both over and before Nala could process anything, she was on the bottom and now Simba was on the top pinning her. Nala was a little worried that it was going to be uncomfortable with him laying on top of her since he was much heavier, but felt that it was even more comfortable and warmer than being on the top since he was resting his weight into his front arms so he didn't crush her.

Nala felt Simba take his right paw, and rest it on her cheek, and felt his left paw around the top right side of her head, playing with her ear as he rubbed it and brushed over it. Nala was overwhelmed by this new feeling and didn't even know that it existed.

Nala let herself body totally relax, and felt exposed for a moment. It felt weird to have her underside completely exposed while being completely relaxed and having both her arms laying at her side. It was natural to keep her underside protected because there were many important organs and vessels in the regions that if damaged, could end up being fatal. The feeling was short lived as she felt Simba's body was completely covering her and it made her feel protected, safe, and warm.

Nala didn't want it to stop. She didn't care how much trouble she got in, but she just wanted to stay like this forever and never have to go back to Pride Rock. Nala felt Simba start to pull back, and pulled back herself just a little thinking that he needed air, but felt him fully remove his tongue from her mouth and fully pull away. Nala tried to hold on to the kiss, but it was too late and felt as it broke and opened her eyes to see him looking down at her with a nervous smile and the saliva strands that were stilling connected to each of their mouths break.

Nala looked into Simba's eyes with a speechless and loving look for what he did. She had no idea how long they had been kissing, but all she knew was that the time was well spent. Nala watched as Simba gave her a shy smile before she felt him remove his one paw from her cheek and his other from over her ear and begin to stand up and walk away.

 **(End of Makeout scene)**

"Simba wait" Nala said quickly causing him to stop. Nala was actually enjoying the feeling on him playing with her ear and the feeling of being pinned. Nala didn't mean to seem creepy, but it was nice to be pinned by him for a change since she was always taking the more aggressive approaches in these kinds of situation.

Nala pushed Simba over so and rolled over herself so that they were both on their sides, and Nala took his paw and put it back on her right ear. Simba got the idea that Nala must have liked the feeling on him messing around with her ear and then began to wonder why she was acting so emotional and romantic right now. It hadn't occurred to him up until now, but Nala was never this romantic or this emotional unless something was wrong, so he was starting to think that something was bugging her.

"Is everything alright?" Simba said, being the first real thing that was said after their little moment.

"Yes, why wouldn't everything be alright?" Nala asked, wondering how anything could possibly be wrong when they were cuddled up with each other.

"I don't know, but you just seem to be acting more emotional and romantic than normal" Simba said, not remember the last time she acted like this when there wasn't something bugging her. Simba watched as Nala looked away and let out a big sigh, before looking back at him.

"I… I just-" Nala said, but suddenly choked on a sob. Simba realized that Nala was about to start crying and mentally panicked on how he was going to get her to calm down quickly. "I just don't want to lose you" Nala said before burying her face into the crook of his neck, as she lightly began to cry. Simba was confused when she said this, as he really wasn't in danger anymore, and she was acting fine before, but only now why she acting hurt. He was also confused by her sudden mood change, which just seemed so sudden and seemingly unrealistic. One moment she was all happy and cuddly, and the next she was crying.

"You won't. I love you, and I'll stay with you. Always" Simba said and he began to nuzzle into her, trying a different approach into calming a girl down when they cry. For some reason, it always seemed like the girls came to him when they needed to cry. Nala came to him because she loved him. Tama came to him because he was the only person she felt comfortable crying in front of, and Kula came to him for the same reason as Tama. The more Simba thought about it, it was because they trusted him and knew he would understand them.

Nala felt reassured with his words and returned he nuzzle finding it comfortable, protecting, and warm as always. Simba felt Nala stop crying rather quickly and was happy to see that his new plan worked.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what's gotten into me" Nala said as she broke the nuzzle and wiped her eyes. Simba was surprised to see that she talking like her normal self again after having just been crying. "I just… I just feel like everything is out to get you, to take you away from me, but it's just all in my head" Nala said as she placed a kiss on his jawline.

"Well, I'm here for you, and if there's ever anything you ever need, just ask" Simba said, knowing by now that when someone needed you the most, those were the words to tell them.

"God, you're starting to sound like me more and more every day" Nala said laughing a little, recalling that she had said that to him numerous times when she was working through his past. Nala then started to think back to his past and wondered if he would be open to talk to her about it. Not that he ever wasn't, but she just wanted to fill in the last few blank spaces of the map.

"Simba, can I ask a-" Nala started, but then remember that he once told her that he could ask anything of him and didn't need his permission. "What's the most painful thing you've ever experienced?" Nala asked. Upon hearing this, some of Simba's worst memories crossed his mind, but he couldn't really pick one, they were all just so bad.

"I… I don't know" Simba said thinking. "In total, was definitely when we were younger and I always feared to lose you, but that's long gone. In one specific instance, probably when I thought you set me up and didn't love me" Simba said and got a conflicted look from Nala.

"What do you mean? When did you think I set you up and felt like I didn't love you?" Nala said. If there was even a chance that he thought she didn't love him, even the teeniest tiniest possibility that he was confused on that, she would show him right here and now just how much she loved him.

"Back when we first met. I… Told you that in my free time all I did was play with my friends, my fake ones, and then you started to glide your paw over my chest and told me that you'd be my friend if I wanted. I was so happy. Literally, up until that point in life, all I ever wanted was a friend, and here was the most beautiful person in the entire universe asking me if I wanted to be friends. The second you said that, Chumvi, Malka, and Tojo jumped me while I was off guard and told me that you didn't, and I felt… betrayed, tricked, and… just so hurt. I had never felt so hurt before because I had never let myself get that attached to someone before. I used to prevent myself from loving other people because if I did and they rejected me I would just be in even more pain. I felt like killing myself in that instance. The idea of coming so close to perfection, so close to the only thing I had ever wanted, and then failing made me not want to continue on" Simba said, and looked down to see that a few tears had found their ways back into Nala's eyes, and Simba realized that he probably was going to make her cry again.

"But-" "I think that's enough sad feelings and tears for now," Simba said with a smile and he nuzzled Nala, cutting her off. Simba knew that she wanted to know more but it would only cause her to get sad. Simba didn't really understand why Nala asked him questions about his past if she knew that it would end up upsetting her, but it seemed like the feeling she would get was worth the knowledge she was going to obtain.

"You didn't even know what I was going to say" Nala said with a smirk, and Simba gave her a little smile in return.

"Come on, the others are probably wondering where we are" Simba said licking her tear stains aways before getting up and walking back towards Pride Rock with Nala in tow.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Upon arriving at Pride Rock, Simba was immediately swept away by Kula to an unoccupied corner of the den to talk about who knows what, but it seemed to be important. Nala was a little bummed out by this as she wanted to spend the afternoon nuzzling him and letting him rub his paw over her ear because it felt so good, but she could find something else to do in the meantime.

Nala looked around and saw that everyone was doing their own thing with someone else besides Chumvi… Nala still strongly disliked Chumvi for what he did and still associated bad things with his name. Every time she heard his name it only killed her mood and made her day a little worse. Nala hadn't spoken to Chumvi in a long time and decided that she should do it now before something prevents her from doing it later on.

"Chumvi" Nala said as she walked up to him, wearing a stoic look. Chumvi sat up and saw that Nala was approaching him, and got a little nervous. Simba, Malka, Tojo, Kula, and Ariya had all forgiven him, but Nala and Tama still hadn't, so he was a little weary around them but nonetheless greeted her with a smile. Nala saw his smile but didn't give him one back, still not happy with what he did. Nala wasn't trying to hold a grudge and actually missed having Chumvi as a friend. She remembered back to all the times they had so much fun as cubs and missed being able to see him as a friend rather than an enemy, which is why she wanted to talk to him right now, so she could maybe try and become friends with him once again.

"I… I want to talk to you" Nala said, and watched as his smile faded and turned to a guilty look as he knew exactly what she was talking about. It had been months since she last had a real conversation with him, and he knew that it was because she was mad at him for bullying the man she loved.

"Here, or... somewhere else?" Chumvi said in a quiet tone, which Nala picked up on. She could tell that he was fearing she had reached her breaking point and was finally ready to hurt him or something for what he had done, and he knew he probably deserved it.

"In private would be better" Nala said as she turned around, and started to make her way to the very top of Pride Rock. Nala could hear Chumvi behind her and was wondering how she was going to start of the conversation so she didn't sound totally hostile. Upon reaching the top, Nala turned around and faced Chumvi and saw that he sat down in a way that made him look uncomfortable.

"I wanted to talk to you about Simba, and what you once did, but I'm not… I'm not happy, but I'm not mad" Nala said, trying to make it sound as level as possible and to not make Chumvi feel uncomfortable.

"Oh… yea…" Chumvi said knowing that Nala was going to want to speak to him at some point and that some point was now.

"I understand why you did it, but what made you stop?" Nala asked, wondering why he one day stopped.

"I'm not really sure, but I think it was when I saw you with him, and he looked to be happy. I had never seen him happy before, only ever depressed and sad, which I guess I thought was his normal, so when I realized that what I was doing was taking such a toll on him, I stopped, and I tried to hide it because I was scared you guys would find out" Chumvi said honestly. Nala could tell that by his quick response he had thought about it a lot on his own, and she knew that he probably had seeing as it practically changed his life. Nala thought about what he said, and while it did make sense, it didn't help her views on him change.

"So basically what you're saying is that you didn't really think Simba was able to be happy, since he was always sad, and your bullying never made him seem any sadder, but when you saw him happy for the first time, it should you the level of mood change you were causing within him?" Nala said making sure she was understanding him. Nala watched as Chumvi gave her a little nod, and Nala was starting to feel a little sorry for him. She was surprised that she was feeling sorry for someone who did something so wrong, but then again she would never make someone feel like what Simba used to feel like, and Chumvi was currently feeling some of that pain.

"Chumvi" Nala said using a soft voice, catching him off guard and getting his attention. "I don't hate you. Not anymore. I would be lying if I said I didn't at first, but I've changed. I'm no longer angry with you, and I'm talking to you now because I want to be friends again. We used to have so much fun together and I know we can start over and forget about what you once did and all the crap. I… look, don't make this out to be anything weird or something, but you're a brother to me, you always have been and because of that I love you, so I can't keep ignoring you like this" Nala said making it clear that she just wanted to be on good terms moving forward.

"You really mean that?" Chumvi asked surprised, wondering how it was possible that she didn't hate him. At one point she hated him so much that she wouldn't even talk to him, and now she was saying that she wanted him to be her friend and brother once again, which just seemed like such a step up compared to her former self.

"I do" Nala said giving him a smile. Chumvi hadn't seen Nala smiled towards him in a while and just the sight of her smile made a smile of his own work its way onto his face.

"Um…" Chumvi started, but then broke eye contact and wore a thinking face as he looked to be thinking about what he wanted to say or how he wanted to say it. "I'm really grateful that you've forgiven me, but… what about Tama?" Chumvi asked, knowing that Tama hated him with a burning passion at one point and the only thing that kept her from beating him up was Simba.

"I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that she probably still hates you. If you want, you can go up to her and try to guilt trip her a little, but if she finds out what you're doing shes most likely going to hate you even more and hit you" Nala said. Nala knew that Tama was very, very protective of Simba, and would have a very hard time at forgiving Chumvi for what he did. Nala couldn't explain the amount of love and trust that was built into their relationship, but if anything wanted to hurt Simba, it was going to have to deal with her at some point.

"Probably" Chumvi said with a defeated look. Tama could be as stubborn and hard as a rock at times, so there was going to be no forcing her to forgive him. The only way that she was going to forgive him was when she felt like it, and that could possibly be never.

"Hey, but on the bright side at least we have each other once again" Nala said, wanting him to be able to enjoy getting one of his old friends back, instead of starting to worry about how he was going to get another.

"Yea" Chumvi said as he watched Nala stand up and walk over to him, lightly nuzzling into the side of his face. Chumvi returned her nuzzle, slowly starting to build back the trust that had once been in their bond. Chumvi knew that he was going to have to win Tama back slowly after proving to her that he had changed, and Nala's friendship had given him the confidence to seek her out and ask about it.

"Thank you, for forgiving me" Chumvi said as he felt her pull away. Chumvi watched as Nala gave him a smile and nodded, before walking past him and down towards the den, most likely to see Simba. Chumvi stayed at the top for a while longer, smiling to himself as things were starting to be like they once were, and all he needed to do was be honest. Chumvi knew that it would be hard to gain Tama's friendship, but if he was ever going to do it, he was going to have to make the first move.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala walked back into Pride Rock to see that Simba was still occupied with Kula, but Tama had joined him and it looked like Simba and Kula's conversation was over, as Simba was now asleep within Kula's grasp, and Kula and Tama were now talking. Nala competitively smirked as she watched how her two sisters were keeping him occupied, and Nala assumed that if Kula was ok with Tama being there, there shouldn't be a problem if she was there.

Nala began walking over to where the three were and saw that it looked weird that Kula was holding onto Simba. Usually, the male was the one to hold on to the female, and it happened to be that Simba was bigger than Kula it looked funny to see that the bigger lion was being held by the smaller lioness.

"Hey Nala" Tama said as she saw Nala approach them. Kula looked over to see that Nala was approaching them and wondered if she was going to want Simba back seeing as she stole him the second he entered the cave. Kula thought that it was funny that she and Tama took turns spending time with Simba, but whenever Nala wanted to her request overpowered theirs and she stole him away from them, and they were wondering if she was going to do it again.

"Want your lion back?" Kula said, motioning towards Simba who was sleeping on his side with his head between Kulas' to front paws and his body perpendicular to hers. Nala chuckled at how Simba was able to fall asleep like that, but she wasn't here to take him away, she was here to just talk and catch up with her sisters.

"No, just wanted to hang out with you guys" Nala said as she took her spot, and made a triangle with Kula and Tama, with the exception of Simba who's body stuck out. "So what were you guys talking about?" Nala asked wondering what they had been talking about while she was gone.

"Sleepyhead over here" Kula said as looked down at Simba, wondering why he was using her as a pillow when Nala had gotten back. "Speaking of sleepyhead, can you take him?" Kula said giving Nala a weird look, making Nala think that Kula was uncomfortable with Simba.

"Yes, is he bothering you?" Nala asked, wondering why she didn't want him. In Nala's mind, there was no reason not to sleep with him. He was a soft, cuddly, cute, warm, protective, and reasonable lion that respected your boundaries and never did cheeky or inappropriate things without consent.

"No I… I just… I… Well…" Kula said sounding embarrassed, and both Tama and Nala gave her curious looks, wanting to know what she was going to say. "I get nervous… when it comes to sleeping with boys…" Kula said with an embarrassed chuckle at the end.

"Why?" Tama asked, wondering how she was nervous with Simba of all boys. He was just a regular boy that was amazing at putting girls to sleep, and didn't try to rest his paws on their stomach or brush their hair, or do any of that other crap like the other males would try and get away with, the reason they all stopped sleeping with them.

"I don't know, I just get nervous sometimes" Kula said not knowing why. "Simba" Kula said while moving her arms a little so she shook him a little. Kula watched as Simba's eyes opened and he gave her a curious look. "Hey, do you mind if you rest with Nala for a bit? I hurt my paw today and I want to relax it" Kula said making up a little lie so he didn't get suspicious.

"Yea, of course" Simba replied in a tired tone before standing up and walking over to Nala, who greeted him with open arms and a passionate kiss. Simba laid down next to her, and pressed his body up against hers and rested his head in her lap between her two paws just like he had been doing with Kula, and Nala felt him drift to sleep almost instantly.

"Why do you always do that?" Tama said giving Nala a weirded out look, making Nala wonder what she was talking about.

"Do what?" Nala asked, before looking over at Kula to see that she was looking confused as well and didn't have a clue as to what Tama was talking about.

"Kiss him like that in front of people" Tama said wondering why Nala always publicly showed her affection and love for Simba. Tama always saw Simba and Nala kissing and nuzzling in the den like they didn't care if other people were watching, and wondered why they did it so much.

"One, because I can. Two, because he lets me, and Three, because who cares. Besides, it's not like you both haven't kissed a boy before" Nala said defending herself while trying to cast the spotlight on them. Nala watched as they both shook their heads, and she was left dumbfounded at the fact that they were both in relationships but they both had never kissed a boy before.

"Wow, you guys really need to step up your game" Nala said, before purposely looking down at Simba and placing a kiss on his cheek.

"Why don't we talk about something else" Kula said, knowing that if they started to talk about boys and kissing and love and all that it was going to get weird and awkward.

"Amen" Tama said, not wanting Nala to try and spread her lovely romantic philosophy on them.

Nala smiled a little at how the two were acting but deiced that it was either that or be bored, and she didn't want to have to spend the rest of her afternoon in silence while she waited for Simba to wake up.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Tojo and Ariya were currently taking a walk through the pride lands while Ariya was drilling into Tojo to get all the information she could about Simba.

"So what's his favorite kind of food?"

"I don't know"

"What his favorite game?"

"I don't know"

"What does he do in his free time?"

"I don't know"

"Do you know anything about him?" Ariya asked after he said 'I don't know' numerous times.

"No" Tojo replied, looking over at Ariya who was giving him a bummed out look.

"Darn" Ariya said, before dropping the subject entirely.

"So how was your day?" Tojo said casually, not trying to sound weird.

"It was good, and yours?" Ariya asked, not knowing what else to say. She just wished that she could kiss him already and make him her first kiss, as she wanted to always be able to remember something special about him, not that there wasn't anything special about him already, but someone doesn't just forget their first kiss, and that's why Ariya wanted to make him hers, but he wasn't showing any signs that he wanted to be more than just friends.

"It was good" Tojo said avoiding eye contact, wondering why it was so hard to just have a normal conversation with her. He wanted to be able to just talk to her and have a normal conversation with her, but for some unknown reason, he felt himself holding back at times.

"So what did you do today?" Ariya asked, wondering what Tojo did during the day while she was about and about and talking to Simba.

Tojo took a moment to think about the question, and the answer was simple. Nothing. Tojo did nothing but sleep and hang out at Pride Rock all day, but that answer was lame and made him sound plain lazy, meaning that he couldn't tell her that if he wanted to try and impress or woo her.

"Um… workout out mainly, yea… I worked out a lot today" Tojo said trying to come up with something that would make him sound manly, and that was the first thing that came to mind. Upon hearing this, Ariya mentally chuckled as guys always seemed to be trying to get stronger every chance they got, but that was just him lying as she remembers seeing him sleeping all day.

"Well I just got done talking to Simba, and he seems like a really nice guy. Strong, defined, soft, funny, shy, cute. I really enjoyed talking to him" Ariya said, wondering if she could try and see if she could get a reaction out of Tojo. Ariya knew that if Tojo liked her, he would get suspicious and jealous if she was talking with other guys, so she was telling him all the details.

Ariya watched as Tojo's mood seemed to suddenly change as he went from being calm and somewhat relax to suspicious and questionable almost instantly, and smiled on the inside, hoping that what she had seen was a good sign.

"What did you guys talk about?" Tojo asked, wanting to know if Ariya may be interested in him. Tojo was determined to be with Ariya and was going to do everything in his power to be with her. He lost Nala, he wasn't going to lose her. The feeling he got when he found out that Nala had fallen in love with Simba took a huge toll on his heart, and he wasn't sure if he could go through something like that again, so wanted to make sure that Ariya wasn't going to fall in love with Simba.

"Only about each other. He seems like a nice guy, but from our little talk, he's not really my type. I can see him as a good friend, but I like soft boys" Ariya said, wondering if Tojo would talk the bait.

"What do you mean by soft boys?" Tojo said, taking that bait. Ariya smiled to herself knowing that Tojo had to be into her to some degree, so now all that was left was really making sure that he loved her or at least had a crush on her, then she could ask him out or tell him about her feelings.

"You know, emotional boys. Boys that don't try to act all cool and tough and try to impress me. I want a man that can be himself around me. That's the boy I want" Ariya said. Tojo realized that Ariya must not have known Simba to well, because he was all of those things and that was the main reason that the other girls fell in love with him whether it was brotherly or romanticly. Tojo felt like panicking because if Ariya really got to know Simba, she could end up falling for him, meaning that he was going to have to start being himself around her or else he was going to end up losing another girl to him.

"So boys who are themselves" Tojo said.

"Yup" Ariya said, watching and studying his behavior closely.

"Ok" Tojo said nodding a little, not even realizing that he was. Ariya was noticing all the queues about Tojo and was thanking the kings of the past that he was such an idiot when it came to things like this or else she would have had a much harder time coming up with the conclusion that he had some special feelings for her.

"So do you have any plans for the rest of the day?" Ariya said, wanting to know what he was going to be doing for the rest of the day seeing as he hadn't really done anything up until this point.

"No, not really. Was there anything you wanted to do" Tojo said, really just trying to make her happy so she was more willing to fall in love with him. Tojo didn't care if he came across as creepy, way too upfront, or anything else along those lines when it came to his relationship with her, but the truth was that he just wanted to make her his as soon as he could. He lost Nala, he wouldn't lose Ariya without a struggle.

"Well, No one has really shown me around the Pride Lands yet, and I hardly know any of it, so would you like to?" Ariya said, liking the idea of being able to spend her afternoon walking around with Tojo and getting to learn about both the pride lands and him.

"Yea! Uh, Yea, sure, I can do that" Tojo said excitedly at first, but then toned down his response to not make it so suspicious. Tojo had no idea why he was playing it off like he wasn't all the interested with her when he was head over heels in love with her, and could only come up with the answer that he didn't want to make her feel pressured or uncomfortable if she didn't feel the same way about him.

"Great, where shall we start?" Ariya said, ready to get on with the tour, and even more ready to get to spend the day with her favorite lion.

"Umm… Oh! I know just the spot, come on!" Tojo said as he starting to make his way towards Simba's hideout, knowing that it would serve as a good reference point since it was a place that she would probably end up staying at a few times during her stay. Ariya started to follow Tojo with a smile on her face, knowing that she was going to enjoy the next few hours and knowing that her decision to come back and visit was sure going to pay off tonight.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba, Nala, Tama, and Kula were still sitting in the same corner of Pride Rock, with Kula and Tama talking, while Nala was somewhat engaged in the conversation but was more focused on grooming Simba.

"So when do you think Nala?" Kula said, as she looked over to see that Nala was currently soaking the side of Simbas face with her saliva before running her claws through his fur, working out the mats and imperfections that had formed in the past week or so, while also removing the dirt and making his coat look overall more decent.

"Yea sounds good" Nala said, not having a clue as to what she just agreed to as she was more focused on making Simba's fur symmetrical on both sides of his face.

"Uhhh..." Kula said, not understanding why Nala said 'Yea sounds good' when that wasn't even an answer to the question she had just asked Tama. "What do you mean?" Kula asked. She had just asked Tama when their mothers would start to take them hunting as they were now all one year old and then went to ask Nala, but her response wasn't even a sensible answer.

"What?" Nala said, not having been paying attention. Both Tama and Kula laughed a bit upon seeing that she was so busy grooming her lion that she wasn't even paying attention anymore.

"We were asking when do you think our mothers will take us hunting" Tama said, amused that Nala was too busy grooming Simba to even realize that they were trying to talk to her.

"Oh uh… well my mother already started to give me tips and tricks, and she told me that she's going to start teaching me any day now" Nala said knowing only that. Nala watched as both Tama and Kula gave her jealous looks and then realized that their mothers must not have even said anything on the matter and that she was lucky to be starting earlier. "You can join me if you'd like" Nala said, not wanting to make it seem like she was trying to get a head start so she would always be one step ahead of them.

Nala watched as they both gave her appreciative smiles, and watched as they held them for a moment before they went to looks of worry and uncertainty. Nala wondered why they were looking at her like that, and why they both did it at the same time and both felt the same emotion.

"What?" Nala asked, wondering why they were giving her that look. Nala watched as Tama pointed behind her, and Nala turned around to see that Mufasa was walking towards them, looking right at her lap where Simba was. Nala immediately knew that Mufasa was here to take Simba away from her, and Nala felt the urge to protect him. To prevent him from taking Simba away from her, even if it was only going to be for a short time.

Nala looked past Mufasa and saw that her mother was looking towards them and was standing at the mouth of the cave, and knew that something had either happened or was about to happen, and felt uneasy about whatever was going on. Nala felt her grip on Simba tighten on instinct but knew she was going to have to let go at some point. Nala watched in slow motion as Mufasa got closer and closer, having a bad feeling about this whole situation just by the look on his face…

 **Well, that can't be good… Anyway hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, and hope y'all enjoyed that little scene between Tojo and Ariya. I've been meaning to do something like that, but I just really haven't found a good place to put it in until now. So hopefully I'll have chapter 17 out within a week, as I'm trying to post once a week now that I'm on break. Also, just want to say that there's a new discord server again with announcements and updates on the story, as well as some other crap like that, so if you wanna join the link it bit. ly/ SimbasPain without those spaces. That's all for this time, y'all have a good one! Mr_Toast out!**


	17. Hunting

**Simba's Pain Chapter 17**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back, everyone. Hope y'all are doing well and just wanna say a quick thank you to all who left a comment or sent a PM on the last chapter. So some of you guys may have noticed that the story seems to be pretty slow right now, and what I mean by that is that the last few chapters have been focused over the span of a week. Now moving forward this is going to speed up just a little, but there is just a lot happening right now and I don't want to make it look like a half ass rushed story. So with all that said and done, Enjoy!**

 **Discord: Mr_Toast#1679**

 **Story Discord: Bit .ly /SimbasPain**

"Simba" Mufasa said as he looked down at Simba's head which was positioned in Nala's lap. Mufasa then looked at each of the girls' faces and saw that they were giving him a look of concern, and knew that they were probably afraid that he was going to send Simba on some suicide mission or make him doing something both dangerous and unnecessary.

Simba slowly opened his eyes, and upon seeing his father standing over him and shot up out of Nala's lap and quickly stood up so that he was level with his father. "Yes, sir- dad" Simba said quickly, wondering what his father needed. The day was almost over and there was an hour or so left before sunset so Simba wondered what his dad needed or wanted from him this late in the day.

"After discussing amongst your aunts, I've decided to enroll you in hunting lessons that will start tomorrow" Mufasa started and watched as everyone seemed to relax, but there were now looks of confusion on everybody's faces. Simba was a lion, not a lioness, and the lionesses did the hunting, so why was he getting hunting lessons?

Nala was happy to hear that it was only about him being enrolled in some hunting lessons, and not that he was going to have to risk his life doing some dumb test or something like that, and felt herself breathing normally once again.

"Uh… ok… But like… not trying to be rude but why exactly do I need hunting lessons?" Simba asked, wondering why he needed to know how to hunt when all he would be doing when he was older was try to run the kingdom without messing something up along the way.

"Because as a king you will need to prove to your pride that you are not only capable of leading them, but taking care of them as well as protecting them" Mufasa said in a serious tone. Simba then realized that it was almost some show of strength that would show everyone he could hunt for the pride if something were to ever happen with the hunting party, or if for some random reason he needed to hunt for the pride or for himself.

"Well, what about my friends?" Simba said motioning behind him, wondering if they were going to be solo or group lessons, seeing as they were pretty much the same age as him and they should be starting any time now.

"You four will all be starting hunting lessons tomorrow at dawn. Sarafina, Matimba, and Khanya will be your teachers" Mufasa said addressing all four of them this time. Mufasa watched as Simba still wore a confused look, while the girls looked to be celebrating as if they had just made some great achievement. Mufasa gave Simba a nod, before turning around and walking away.

"Yes! Did you hear him? We all get to start tomorrow! This is so exciting!" Kula said jumping to her feet.

"Finally, it's about time" Tama said standing up as well. Both Tama and Kula looked over at Nala to see that she had an excited face as well, and then looked over at Simba to see that he was looking at them with a confused look.

"What?" Aren't you excited Simba?" Kula asked, wondering why he was celebrating with them.

"Well… I don't know, but who are Matimba and Khanya?" Simba asked, not knowing who those names belong too. Simba watched as all three girls gave him a dumb look, and Simba realized that they were either important or he should already know who they are by the looks of things.

"Your aunts. Matimba is my mother and Khyana is Kula's mother" Tama said, wondering how no one told him that. Tama then realized that he probably didn't know who Tyra, Kyla, or Tyla were, also his aunts and the mothers of Chumvi, Malka, and Tojo, but they normally kept to themselves so that wasn't all that surprising.

"Oh…" Simba said, not evening realizing that he didn't know who their mothers were. Simba knew what all the lionesses looked like and knew that they were part of his pride, but he never talked to them and never got to know them, so the only lion adult besides his father he knew was Sarafina.

"What do you think we'll learn first" Nala said, bring the excited and eager mood back. Simba watched as the girls talk amongst themselves about how exciting it was going to be and how much they couldn't wait, and Simba concluded that this must have been a big deal for them.

"Well I already know that I'm going to be the best hunter out of the three of us" Tama said bragging, knowing that she was going to train the hardest and dedicate all of her time to learning how to hunt.

"Hah, you wish" Kula said, knowing that Tama wasn't going to be victories without a fight.

"You two keep bragging but guess whose job it's going to be to lead the hunting party" Nala said, knowing that the queen led the hunting party and since she was betrothed to Simba, it was safe to say she was going to be queen. The girls continued this conversation for a while, while Simba was sitting outside of their triangle wondering why it was such a big deal.

After an hour had gone by, Nala and Kula were still talking about hunting, being so excited that they weren't tired and wanted it to be tomorrow morning already. Tama had called it quits a few minutes prior to this and went over to Simba before snuggling up against him and falling asleep into his soft and warm chest almost instantly. The moment Tama felt Simba tuck her in with his arms, that tired feeling swept over her and it was only a matter of seconds before she was out cold.

Nala and Kula were so busy in their talk that they hadn't even noticed that other people were starting to go to bed, and it was only when it was getting super dark outside that they finally noticed it was getting late and they had been talking for a while.

"Have we really been talking for this long?" Kula asked, remember when Mufasa came by that it was an hour before sunset.

"I guess so" Nala said, and then realized that Simba wasn't behind her anymore. "Where's Simba?" Nala asked looking around but not seeing him due to the lack of light within the cave.

"Aww… how sweet. There he is" Kula said, spotting him and Tama embracing each other as they were both sleeping in a corner of Pride Rock. Kula noticed that Tama was snuggled into his chest and he was wrapping his arms around her like he was hugging her, and realized that this was the same position that Simba held Nala in every night when they fell asleep and giggled at how effective his strategy of putting a girl to sleep was, as it seemed to work on everyone.

"When did that happen?" Nala asked, not having noticed that Tama slipped out as well.

"Not too long ago" Kula said, finding it funny that since Nala didn't take her chance to claim Simba as hers for the night, Tama decided to seize the opportunity whilst it presented itself.

"Well, I guess I won't feel that bad if I woke them up knowing that" Nala said as she walked over towards Simba. She might not be able to enjoy the softness, warmth, and protective nature of his grasp and chest, but she would at least have a strong body and equally soft and warm mane to lay down on.

Kula stood there conflicted for a moment, wondering where she was going to sleep for the night. Normally, she and Tama would sleep wherever the boys weren't so they would leave them alone and since she hated to have to sleep by herself, but didn't really know if it was ok to sleep with Simba. Sure, she had slept with him in the past during the trial, but that was different. It was almost like she had to and she wanted to feel safe and protected from the storm outside, but now that the stakes were different, something felt off. Kula decided to give in to the uncomfortable feeling of having to sleep alone and decided that she was going to have to get used to sleeping with a boy at some point, and since Simba was very respectful of people's boundaries, she would find it easier to start with him.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Tama was currently mumbling in her sleep and making little flailing motions but was held in place by Simbas' arms which were wrapped around her preventing her from rolling over. To any bystander, it was obvious to tell that she was having a nightmare and it was definitely a bad one by the amount of sweat that was on her forehead and back.

Tama woke up with a start and felt the urge to scream out, but didn't, not knowing if her dream was real or not. Tama tried to move but felt something holding her down, just like in her dream. Tama took in the scent of the creature that was detaining her, and realized that its scent was none other than Simbas'.

"Bad dream?" Tama heard Simba asked, and then realized that she probably woke him up when she was having her nightmare.

"Yea" Tama said removing her face from his chest and sliding up so that she was face to face with him. Tama felt the urge to rest her paw on his cheek and be able to brush his soft fur around, but her mood wasn't the best right now and she didn't really feel like it was going to help her at all.

"Well… want to talk about it?" Simba asked, knowing that was the most generic thing to say when someone had a nightmare and you wanted to try and comfort them. Simba watched as Tama broke eye contact and began to study the two scars on his chest, and Simba got the idea that her dream probably had something to do with him getting hurt.

"Yes, but how did you get that scar?" Tama asked pointing to the one on his chest.

"I got it protecting you from being impaled by a rock, but I wasn't so lucky myself. How did you forget?" Simba said with a quiet chuckle, not wanting to wake Nala who was laying on top of him and using him as a pillow.

"The other one" Tama said, resting her paw on the scar that was on his ribcage. She had seen it many times before and always wondered how he got it, but always forgot to ask because something else was going on.

"Oh, that one? I broke my ribs falling down a hill" Simba replied, not recalling that she had heard the story behind that scar. Unlike Nala, Tama knew almost every scar on him and how he got it, so it seemed odd that she didn't know the second biggest scar he was currently sporting right now.

Tama moved her paw from the scar on his ribcage to his cheek and gave him an emotional look. "Please be careful today" Tama said suddenly, confusing Simba. Why did she want him to be careful today compared to being careful any other day? Then Simba remembered that they would all start hunting lessons today and she most likely had a nightmare about him either being killed or hurt during one and now she was going to get emotional, probably cry a bit, and then make him promise to always be there for her.

"I will. Was that what your nightmare was about?" Simba asked, having a feeling that she dreamt about him getting hurt in some way. Tama nodded her head and felt the urge to cry a little. Tama didn't know why her body had to betray her like this and make her cry, as she hated to cry and there were currently people around her that could see her.

"Yea" Tama said as she pulled herself back into him for more comfort.

"It was just a dream. It won't come true, and If you want, I can stay with you the entire time so you can look out for me" Simba said in a somewhat happy voice, trying to cheer her up. He felt her shake her head up and down telling him that she was happy with that before he felt a warm wet feeling in his chest and realized that she was silently starting to cry. Simba thought about saying something but decided that it was best to just let her fall back asleep and try to get some rest himself.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was woken up when he felt someone tapping their muzzle into the side of his face to get him up. Simba opened his eyes up to see that Sarafina was looking down at him, and probably Matimba and Khanya, but he couldn't tell who was who.

"Time to get up" Sarafina said. Then Sarafina realized that everyone that was supposed to attend was with Simba currently. Tama was in his arms, Nala was on top of him, and Kula was snuggled up into his back with her paws wrapped around his waist. Sarafina thought that it was funny that the only person they trusted to sleep with was him, so each one of them tried to take turns with him from time to time.

Simba tried to get up but felt that all three girls were holding him down, and realized he would have to wake them up first.

"Tama, Nala. Get up" Simba said shaking Tama and moving his head over so that Nala's head would fall down into his neck. Both girls woke up with reluctance and slowly got up themselves. Simba was finally able to get up but then felt Kula pull him back down before tightening her grip on him, telling him that she didn't want him to leave.

"Kula come on, we gotta get up for hunting lessons" Simba said in an enthusiastic voice so he could prompt her to get up.

"No" Kula said snuggling deeper into him, not wanting to get up so early. She never woke up this early and just wished that she could sleep in a little. Kula felt Simba start to stand up, and held him down, but then felt herself being lifted up and soon found herself lying on his back. Kula realized that his plan was to just carry her until she woke up, which was better than her having fully wake up and wake around herself.

Simba walked over to where everyone else was and now saw that Ariya was awake as well, and realized that she was probably coming along with them since she was the same age as them and was ready to start as well.

Simba walked over to where everyone was and gave Nala her mandatory good morning kiss and nuzzle that she required of him every morning, which she happily returned. Nala then noticed that Kula was still resting on Simba's back, being too lazy and too tired to get up and chuckled a little at how her sister was acting.

"Kula, wake up" Sarafina said as she approached the three, noticing that Kula was still on Simba's back.

"Five more minutes" Kula said, burying her face deeper into the back of his lush and warm mane, feeling comforted by it.

"Very well, then you can start hunting next month" Sarafina said giving her an ultimatum. Kula realized that she wasn't going to be able to win this fight and begrudgingly began to roll off of Simba and get up. Sarafina smirked at how she was able to get Kula up so easily without having to do anything besides threaten to delay her training.

Sarafina looked back over at her daughter and Simba to see that the two's lips were currently locked and Nala seemed to be purring rather loudly. Sarafina cleared her throat loud enough for the two to hear her and they both broke apart after hearing Sarafinas queue. Sarafina watched as Nala gave him a playful looked before briefly nuzzling him before making her way towards the front of the cave.

"Hey" Simba said as he walked up to Sarafina, and was greeted with a smile. "So which one is Khanya, and which one is Matimba. I can't tell which one is which" Simba said. He knew that Matimba was Tama's mother and Khanya was Kula's mother, but he couldn't see the resemblance between them and their cubs.

"Khanya is the darker one, and Matimba is the lighter one" Sarafina said, before making her way towards the front of the cave. Simba decided to follow her lead but was stopped when he felt someone come up behind him and began to nuzzle into him. Simba already saw the three girls at the front of the cave so wondered who was nuzzling into the side of him, seeing as they most likely were a boy.

Simba looked over to that Ariya was now next to him and nodded him a 'good morning'.

"So why is everyone up so early?" Ariya asked, wondering why everyone was up so early.

"Hunting lessons" Simba said and watched as she got a somewhat jealous and offended look, and wondered what he said to her that made her upset.

"And you guys didn't invite me?" Ariya said in a playfully offended voice. Simba picked up on the playfulness in her voice and realized that she was just messing with him.

"Well, we only found out last night, and you gotta take that up with them" Simba said pointing to the adults. Simba watched as Ariya walked past him and marched up to Sarafina, most likely to ask her if she was allowed to learn with them.

Simba began to make his way over to where they were and overheard Ariya stating all the reasons that she should come with them, and watching as his three aunts accepted her reasons and allowed for her to tag along. Ariya was the same age and it would be really inconvenient to her if she was to be staying here and not learn to hunt so that if she ever went back to her home pride she would be behind all the other lionesses her age.

Simba watched as his three aunts began to lead everyone out of the cave and into the pride lands to begin their first hunting lesson, and Simba began to follow behind them listening in on the girls eagerly talking about what they thought they were going to do next.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Sarafina, Matimba, and Khanya led the trainees to an open clearing that was not to far from Pride Rock before turning around and halting everyone.

"Alrighty. Rule number one, work as a team. The only way you're going to be able to take down an animal is if you work together. Rule number two, do not kill or chase anything unless instructed to. Rule number three, stick with a partner. Doesn't matter who, just make sure that you're always with someone at all times. Does anyone have a problem with these rules?" Sarafina started in a serious tone.

The adolescents were a little surprised by the way she was talking to them and were wondering why it sounded like she was treating this like boot camps with the rules and serious tone. They all shook their head signalling for Sarafina to continue.

"Very well. Today is about stealth. If you ever want to hunt you're going to need to learn how to sneak up on your prey. Today, you're the hunter and we're the prey. To pass this lesson, you will need to sneak up on the three of us without us hearing you. This clearing is the starting point, and that tree is where we will be. If we see, hear, or smell you we will call your position out and you will return to this clearing. You may not pair up with anyone during this lesson and will not be allowed to cause a distraction so your friends can pass. If you make it to us without us hearing you, come to the edge of the grass and walk out. Are there any questions?" Khanya said, telling them what they need to do.

"I have one" Tama asked. Khanya nodded telling Tama to proceed. "What if we make it to the edge of the grass, and then you see us before we have a chance to step out?" Tama asked, wondering if they had to do it in one soundless motion or if they made it to the edge of the grass without being detected, they automatically won.

"If you make it to the edge of the grass without us detecting you, you pass" Khanya said clearing that up.

"Wait, aren't you going to teach us how to sneak around first?" Nala asked knowing that none of them had any experience with sneaking around, so it seemed a little unfair that she was asking them to sneak up on experts without knowing what to do.

"I believe in learning on the job" Khanya said with a smirk, before turning around and beginning to walk away with Sarafina and Matimba.

The five all stood where they were, still confused on how this was going to teach them to be hunters if they were being set up to fail. Furthermore, they didn't even know when they were suppose to start as no one ever explained that.

"So… do we just start or what?" Tama asked looking around to see what they were supposed to do. Simba looked over at the girls to see that they were all looking back at him as if he was supposed to tell them what to do. Simba had no idea why the girls, or at least Nala, Tama, and Kula thought of him as their leader and what not and always looked up to him when they were unsure of things.

"Only one way to find out" Simba said as he started to walk forwards. Everyone started to make their way forwards, splitting up to not get called out for cheating, and began their first lesson.

As expected, Simba nailed it his first try. Sarafina expected this and listened extra carefully for him, knowing that he had the best chance of succeeding, and Matimba and Khanya were left speechless by his performance.

"Ten feet ahead and a little to the right. Heard you" Matimba said, hearing someone that was nearly in front of her step on a leaf and causing it to make a crunching sound.

"Dammit! Every Time. Stuiped leaves" Tama said as she turned around and walked away.

Next was followed by a stick cracking, which belong to Nala as she too was making the mistake of not watching her foot placement. "Heard you" Sarafina said, and heard the sound of a paw hitting the ground in frustration.

It had been fifteen minutes since the start and Simba was the only to have passed, causing the girls to get frustrated at their repeated failure. As a result of this frustration, they started to make careless mistakes which only induced even more frustration, causing a never ending cycle of mistakes.

"They're never going to succeed at this rate" Matimba said, coming to the conclusion that they had almost no stealth skills.

"They'll learn… I hope" Khanya said, hoping by now that they would have realized their mistakes. Just as she said this, Tama exited from the tall grass to their left, and they looked over to see that she was wearing a look of triumph. Khanya finally let a smile come to her face as Tama had finally realized that she needed to watch where she was stepping, and that's what was causing her to fail.

"Well done" Sarafina said, before focussing back to try and hear if anyone else was closing in. It wasn't long before the Nala, Kula, and Ariya also realized that they were making too much noise on the leaves and were able to pass within the next few attempts.

"Finally" Kula said before stepping out as she made it to the edge of the tall grass without being heard. Even though it took her two more attempts than Nala and one more than Ariya, it was still a win to celebrate in her book.

"Well done. Now, what was one thing you learned today?" Matimba asked, wanting to know if their students learned any new skills or if they all just got lucky.

"To watch where we are stepping so we don't make too much noise" Tama said. Matimba gave her daughter a smile and a nod, satisfied with her answer.

"So when are we going to get to take down our first animal?" Kula asked, not finding today's activity exciting.

"Not for a long time" Sarafina said, knowing that it wouldn't be for another few months until they were prepared for their first real hunt.

"But why?" Kula asked, not wanting to have to do dumb lessons like these for a long time. When she imagined the words 'hunting lessons', she imagined lessons about hunting. Not lessons on how to be quiet and what not.

"Because you'd never be able to catch anything even if you tried" Sarafina said with a bit of a smile on her face at the fact that she was insulting their hunting skills. Sarafina watched as Kula looked like she wanted to retort, but then again it wasn't like she knew how to, as she really didn't know how to hunt, and watched as she shut her trap and slouched a little.

"Alrighty, now for some conditioning" Sarafina said, and watched as Nala, Tama, Kula, and Ariya gave her looks of horrors, while Simba was already in god like shape so he didn't see it as being that bad.

"What?!" "No!" "Why?!" "Seriously?!" The four girls retorted at the same time.

"If you ever want to take down something bigger than you, you'll need strength. If you ever want to chase down something faster than you, you'll need stamina, which is why were going to start building those up today" Sarafina said as the girls wore defeated looks. "Simba, you're dismissed" Sarafina said, causing the girls to give her looks of confusion and frustration.

"Why doesn't he have to train with us?" Kula asked, wondering why he got to go and they didn't.

"Two reasons. One, he works out around three in the morning every day, and two, he's already in amazing shape" Sarafina said. Nala and Tama were both confused by this. Seeing as Nala slept with him almost every night and Tama was near him almost every night, they would have thought that they would have noticed him sneaking out to work out, but they hadn't caught him once.

"But that's not fair" Kula said still not seeing why he didn't have to suffer with them.

"If you would like to wake up at three in the morning and train with him then you're more than welcome to, but unless you want to do that, you're staying here" Sarafina said listing out her options.

"Auntie, it's fine, I'll stick it out with them" Simba said with a smile, and Sarafina gave him a confused look. Normally, when somewhat got the chance to skip out on conditioning, they took it, but then again the conditioning they would be doing would be easy for Simba and he would hardly have a hard time keeping up.

"Very well" Sarafina said. "This tree" Sarafina started. "Does anyone know what kind of tree it is?" Sarafina asked the adolescents.

"A baobab tree" They replied in unison.

"Correct. Now, a baobab tree produces a fruit which grows at the top. Your task it to retrieve one of those and bring it back" Sarafina said.

"How?" Tama asked, which seemed like a dumb question. The fruit was in a tree, which means the only way you were going to get one was to climb the tree and pick it yourself.

"By climbing it of course" Sarafina said. The four girls were then unsure of whether or not they would be able to get it. Tama stood the highest chance, but climbing a tree took a lot of upper body strength which they lacked. "Simba, you're up" Sarafina said, having no doubt that he would pass.

"Ok" Simba said, while walking up to the tree. Simba looked up at the top and noticed that there were no low hanging branches, which means he would have to do a fifteen to twenty foot vertical climb. Simba jumped onto the side of the tree and sunk his claws into the bark, before beginning to climb it with relative ease. It took a lot of paw and forearm strength to support himself when the only points of contact were his claws, but he was able to do the first part easily. Simba reached the first branch and hung onto it and saw that the next branch was directly above him about four feet up. Using nearly all his strength, Simba did almost a super pull up and propelled himself off on the first branch and reached the second one. From here, he saw a fruit just a few feet away, and with one arm completely pulled himself up, and extended his free arm and grabbed onto the fruit.

 **(Ok, so to basically explain what Simba just did, imagine climbing up a 15-20 ft tree and then hanging off a branch like it where a pullup bar. Then, doing a pull and pushing yourself off that branch to reach a second branch 4 feet above that. Now in order to do that, you would need a lot of strength to be able to do this with just your arms and without using your legs. I read somewhere like only about 1-2% of our population on the planet has the strength to a pullup like that, and then do a one arm pull up and reach out to grab something, all while making it look easy. That's just one of the things Simba is capable of lol)**

Simba put the fruit in his mouth and slowly began to make his descent down the tree before reaching the vertical part, and doing a fast rope technique until he reached the bottom. Simba dropped the fruit at Sarafina feet before looking back up at her, and noticed the looks he was receiving.

Matimba and Khanya were looking at him with dumbfounded looks, and the girls were looking at him with jealous and dumbfounded looks too, while Sarafina was just simply smiling at him.

"Very well done Simba" Sarafina said giving him a little nuzzle, before turning to the girls. "Now, who would like to go next?" Sarafina said, looking among them to see who would volunteer. Sarafina watched as they all gave her looks of confusion, probably confused as to how she could possibly think that they were capable of doing that, and how this was going to help condition them.

"Alrighty, Sarafina said seeing as no one was going to volunteer. "Tama, you're up"

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

The five adolescents where currently walking back to Pride Rock after finally finishing their first hunting lesson, if you could call it that. The four girls were all tired, cranky, and defeated, while Simba was just trying to stay on their good side.

Only Simba was able to climb the tree, while the girls failed over and over again, even falling a few times.

"So glad I learned how to hunt today" Tama said in a sarcastic voice, disappointed by the lessons she had to do.

"It will get better" Nala said. At some point they were going to have to learn how to hunt, which means it was only a matter of time before they started to learn the interesting stuff.

"Hopefully" Kula said.

"Well, at least we now know what to expect" Simba said, trying to add to the positive attitude everyone was trying to set. Simba looked around to see that everyone but him was just in a bad attitude and wondered why they were so disappointed. Sure, they failed, but at least they were now going to learn to be hunters, something they had always wanted to do.

"Well I uhh… gotta go talk to Rafiki about kingly duties and all that boring stuff so I'll see you guys later" Simba said. Normally, they would ask questions and either Nala or Tama would offer to come along, but this time no one even gave him a reaction. They just all kept their heads low and continued to walk on.

Simba turned around and started to walk in the direction of Rafiki's tree, thinking about how he was going to avoid being a target of Tama's anger in the near future. It was that she liked to vent her anger at him, but that he was her primary source of comfort meaning that he was always going to have to deal with her anger when she was mad.

Simba was walking along, still thinking about Tama and her anger, when he heard the sounds of someone stalking him. He knew it wasn't the girls because of their moods and they didn't stalk him. It wasn't Sarafina because she was never clumsy and wouldn't let him hear her so easily, so he was wondering who it could be.

"Hey red mane" The stalker said, and Simba smirked. Hyenas. Time to have a little fun…

 **Ok, so firstly I would like to apologize for the long wait. I know it took forever. And secondly, I would like to apologize for the short chapter. I've been busy with work and all that, so I haven't had much time to write, but I just needed to publish something so sorry for this being a short chapter and sorry if its a little disappointing. I'm trying to do my best but do know that I won't give up on this story and let it die. So I don't know when I'll have the next chapter out, but hopefully, it won't be too long. So with all that said, sorry for the wait, Mr_Toast out.**


	18. Jason

**Simba's Pain Chapter 18**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back y'all. Hope y'all got a chance to see the new remake of the lion king which just came out. So hopefully after this chapter, it will start to pick up speed a little and maybe even age the adolescents but since it's been pretty much the same week/days for the past few chapters now. So there's not too much to be said here like always, so, Enjoy!**

 **Discord: Mr_Toast#1697**

 **Story Discord: bit .ly /SimbasPain**

Simba turned around to see a lone hyena standing behind him in the middle of the path, which he thought to be odd. Normally hyenas would travel in packs and swarm prey with their numbers, so Simba was skeptical whether or not this hyena was truly along.

"Didn't bring your friends this time?" Simba said, taunting the hyena and making it seem like his presence wasn't unwanted.

"My friends… are the reason I'm here" The hyena said, and watched as Simba gave him a curious yet amused look. He hated Simba with a burning passion and wish that he could smash his head in his paw, but no matter what Simba would always find a way to beat him.

"Do tell?" Simba said.

"Seeing as all my plans to either kill you or capture you have failed, I was let off so to speak" The hyena said.

"And so you're now coming to me in one last attempt to either kill or capture me so that you can reobtain your position and restore your honor or something like that?" Simba said, taking a shot at connecting the dots.

"No. I couldn't even beat you if I tried" The hyena said, before rotating his left paw which Simba noticed. Simba looked down at his paw and saw that it was a little scared and looked to have been broken at one point, and then immediately recognized who it was.

"Hey, I remember you. I broke your paw that one time" Simba said knowing that he was going to piss the hyena off. "Jason isn't it? How's it been? Long-time no see" Simba said knowing that he was no match for him so purposely tried to annoy him.

"Yea yea yea, I hear ya" Jason said in defeat.

"Now what is it that you really want?" Simba said in a serious tone. This hyena was a former member of a clan that wanted him dead and was now seeking him out for something.

"I came to warn you, and join you" Jason said, hoping red mane would hear him out.

"Join me? Why would you want to join me? Come anywhere near Pride Rock and I can guarantee that every lion in there will try and kill you." Simba said.

"Look. I know I've done some bad things in my life, but right now I got nowhere to be so its either I starve to death in the outlands or get mauled to death by lions, and getting mauled is faster. Your pride doesn't trust me, and they don't have to. Those other hyenas ruined my life, so I'm going to make sure that you know everything you can about them so they don't succeed" Jason said.

"And how do I know you aren't here to befriend me, lead me into a trap, betray me, and then kill me" Simba said.

"Because… well… you don't know. And if you want to trust me, which you don't, Know I've changed and I ain't that person anymore, but all I want is your help in defeating the other hyenas" Jason said.

"I'm not going to risk my life for your problems and you're in no position to ask for my help but-" "Simba can we ta-" Tama said walking out of the tall grass, but then noticing the hyena in front of him. "Hyena!" Tama yelled. Tama rushed in front of Simba and got in a defensive stance to let the hyena know they if he tried anything she would be there to stop him.

Tama began to nuzzle under his chin whilst giving the hyena a death glare before wondering what was going on. "What's going on" Tama whispered.

"I'll explain later, just please, let me handle this" Simba said. Tama knew that this couldn't possibly be something good, but she wanted answers and right now the only way to get them was to shut her trap and wait. Tama got out of her stance and took a seat in front of Simba, still shielding him from the hyena, and tucked her head under his chin.

Jason saw the way this lioness was acting with him and knew that something was going on between the two of them, and smirked. "You're the girl from last time" Jason said towards Tama.

"Yea, and don't think that since I'm a girl I won't kill you" Tama snarled. Tama felt Simba wrap his arms around her and apply an uncomfortable amount of pressure telling her to back off.

"Sorry, she's normally like this. Anyway, I won't help you, but If you want to help by explaining why you want me dead, then maybe I'll trust you" Simba said, wanting to know why his clan has been attacking him for so long.

"I'm not sure why, but some lion hates you and wants you dead" Jason said, earning an intrigued look from Simba.

"Who?" Simba asked.

"Not sure, but he's the main boss. Like the top of the ladder. I don't know who he is, where he is, Hell, I've never even seen the man. But one thing I do know is that the attacks won't stop. The attacks are only going to get worse" Jason said, explaining all he knew.

"So what you're trying to tell me is that someone somewhere wants me dead but you have no idea who he is and whatnot, for a reason that no one is sure of?" Simba asked, wondering if he was on the same page.

"Yea, pretty much" Jason said, knowing that it sounded bad.

"Well in the case that you're telling the truth, and maybe we see a common enemy in this guy, how are you going to find him?" Simba asked. Clearly whoever this unknown person is, he was the guy who most likely fired Jason, and not Jason wanted revenge. But seeing as no one really knew him, it seemed unlikely that he was going to be able to find him.

"I don't know, but the other reason I'm here is I'm wondering if there is anywhere I can stay?" Jason asked, and watched as both Simba and that affectionate lion wore conflicted faces.

"Well…" Simba said giving it some thought before Tama couldn't contain herself and chimed in. "Wait, you're not seriously thinking about letting him stay? I mean you can't possibly believe any of the shit that he just tried to feed us" Tama said while standing up and turning around to face him, completely against the idea of letting him stay.

"Go back to Pride Rock" Simba told Tama and watched as she now wore an angry and offended look.

"You're not the boss of me" Tama retorted.

Simba went to say something, but someone else beat him to it.

"But I am" Sarafina said as she stepped out into the open, surprising everyone.

"Auntie! Thank god. Please explain to this idiot that-" "'Go to Pride Rock" Sarafina said cutting her off, before eyeing the hyena an uncomfortable glare. Tama now stood there is a somewhat defeated manner. Simba she wouldn't listen to, but Sarafina could get her into so much trouble that she wouldn't be free for the next three months, so it was almost like she had to listen to her.

"No! Not while this fu… hyena is around threatening the safety of Simba" Tama said, wanting to call him something completely different, but knew that it would only make Sarafina even madder if she used profanity.

"Then I'll protect him. Go. Now!" Sarafina said raising her voice and putting more emphasis on the 'I'll'. Sarafina watched as Tama was running out of cards to play, and only knew that it was only a matter of time until she would finally realize that she was defeated and go home.

"I'm more than capab-" "Tama shut up! Auntie, please!… give me a moment" Simba said yelling at Tama, but then lowered his voice when he realized the tone he was using towards Sarafina. Simba turned back to the hyena who had been standing there watching the drama unfold.

"Thanks for the information, but you're of no further value to me, so no, you can't stay" Simba said. Jason had expected him to say that, but it was still worth a shot. Without another word between the two, Simba watched as Jason turned around and disappeared into the tall grass, hopefully being the last time Simba would even have to see him.

"Care to explain what that was all about?" Sarafina said towards Simba, wondering what business he had with a hyena. Sarafina had been walking towards Rafiki when she heard a voice that sounded like Tama's yell 'Hyena' and made her way over to investigate.

"Apparently he was exiled and came to me to tell me that some lion wants me dead yet he doesn't know who, and that the attacks aren't going to stop or get any better" Simba said while turning around and walking over to Sarafina.

"And is this information worth trusting?" Sarafina asked, wanting to know if Simba thought it was true or not.

"I don't see why not. Make sure were more careful and whatnot, but I wouldn't recommend getting paranoid over this lion until we can confirm he's real and whatnot" Simba said. Sarafina was satisfied with his response as it closely matched her own.

"Agreed. Now, If you will excuse me, I'd like to have a talk with Tama" Sarafina said, forgetting her plans to visit Rafiki as she wanted to have a word with Tama. Simba nodded, knowing that it was about their confrontation, before heading off in the direction of Rafiki's tree to let the two talk.

Sarafina looked over at Tama to see that she was wearing her tough girl look to make it seem like she wasn't intimidated by what she had to say, and Sarafina sighed at how she was acting.

"Tama" Sarafina started, but then paused and began to think about how she wanted to put her thoughts into words. "What's been bothering you?" Sarafina said calmly, surprising Tama a bit. Tama would have expected Sarafina to be livid for her talking back and being so disrespectful, but wasn't going to question why she wasn't mad.

"Nothing" Tama said, avoiding eye contact.

"Something has to be" Sarafina said walking over to where Tama was and sitting down directly in front of her. Tama saw how much bigger Sarafina was to her and felt intimidated, but didn't let it show.

"Nothing that concerns you" Tama said as she sat up and began to walk away.

"Seeing as it was worth putting yourself between Simba and a hyena, risking your life, I say it does concern me" Sarafina said, not trying to stop Tama from walking away, playing her cards wisely.

"Well seeing as you're not my mother, I don't feel like listening to you" Tama said trying to ignore Sarafina and set her up for a home run.

"Well I'm not Simba's mother yet you don't see him throwing a fit every time I tell him what to do" Sarafina said, stopping Tama in her tracks.

"I'm not throwing a fit, I'm being the mature one and walking away" Tama said, and Sarafina smirked.

"And what is your definition of mature? Someone who seeks to solve a problem, or someone who runs away from one?" Sarafina said, glad to see that Tama was falling right into her trap.

"I'm not running away from the problem" Tama said, before continuing to walk away.

"Then what are you running away from?" Sarafina said, and watched as she was successful at angering Tama.

"Nothing! I'm running away from nothing. Because you are nothing!" Tama yelled, storming up to Sarafina.

"If I'm nothing then what are you running away from" Sarafina said, confusing Tama. Sarafina saw the confused look on Tama's face and went to continue. "If I'm nothing then why are you trying to avoid this conversation? If I'm nothing then how did I get you to turn around and talk to me?" Sarafina said, leaving Tama at a loss for what to say.

"That doesn't make sense. If I'm trying to avoid you then why did I turn around?!" Tama said, turning around once again and walking away.

"Just because you refuse to believe something doesn't mean that it doesn't make sense" Sarafina said, knowing that Tama would turn around and start asking questions. Sarafina was doing her best to make this conversation as confusing as possible for Tama, and was glad to see that Tama wasn't able to make sense of anything.

"Enough with these riddles and these… these… confusing sentences. If there's something you want to tell me, just tell me!" Tama exclaimed both angered and confused, turning around and walking up to Sarafina. Tama stared at Sarafina and watched as she just looked back at her, not appearing to look like she had something to say. "Is there something you want to tell me?" Tama asked much more calmly, wondering why Sarafina wasn't saying anything.

"Is there something you want to hear?" Sarafina asked, making Tama think about what she wanted from her. **(*Cough* Wonder what Disney movie I copied that from).**

"I don't know but if there was something you wanted to tell me, then why are you still talking to me?" Tama asked, wondering why Sarafina couldn't just make some sense.

"If you truly didn't want to talk to me or hear something from me then why didn't you walk away when you first turned around?" Sarafina asked, making Tama finally realize that this was a trap she had been setting all along, and Tama had been taking the bait the entire time.

Sarafina heard Tama let out a long sigh, before slouching over. "Fine, you've got me" Tama said, finally accepting defeat.

"Now, let's talk about Simba" Sarafina said, knowing that's what has been bothering Simba.

"I'm just following my instincts. They're the ones who are telling me to protect him" Tama said, not really knowing what else to say.

"Not instinct, emotion" Sarafina said, confusing Tama once again. "Instincts help keep us alive, and in some instances, tell us to protect others, such as a mother defending her cub. But instincts don't tell us to put ourselves between a hyena and someone else in any given situation. Only love tells us that" Sarafina said, causing Tama to feel down.

"I hate being in love with him" Tama said, causing Sarafina to realize what her problem was.

"Do tell?" Sarafina said, wanting to hear what Tama had to say before making any finale assumptions.

"It just sucks. Ninety-Five percent of the time I hate it and five percent of the time I love it. Always having to worry about him since a clan of hyenas wants him dead. Having a shitty father that tries to kill him. And then like once a year I get to enjoy a night with him since that bitch Nala always gets him" Tama said, before realizing that she called Nala a bitch in front of Nala's mother.

"Well, to be fair, he's her boyfriend" Sarafina said, making sure Tama knew that was nothing to be surprised about.

"I know, I'm not mad at Nala, I get he's her girlfriend, and that's why it sucks. Do you have any idea how it feels to want to spend the day with someone only to realize that there spending it somewhere else with someone else? I don't love him as Nala loves him, but that doesn't mean I don't want to be able to spend time with him" Tama exclaimed.

"I know exactly how it feels" Sarafina said, earning a confused look from Tama. "Nala's my daughter. My little girl. And I love her. Yet I hardly ever get to spend time with her anymore. I never see her around since she's always with Simba and it hurts. But I've learned to accept the fact that she's growing up and found someone she wants to spend her life with, and I've moved on. But that doesn't mean I've grown to hate the fact that I love her, or sought to hate Simba for capturing her heart. It's taught me to cherish and enjoy the moments where I do get to spend time with her" Sarafina said, making it known that she knew the feeling she felt.

"Oh" Tama said, not knowing that Sarafina understood the feeling that she was feeling, and it helped her realize that she wasn't the only one feeling this way. "How did you get rid of it" Tama asked, now seeking her help and feeling all her previous feelings of anger and annoyance towards her dissipate.

"I didn't, and it never goes away. You just learn to accept it, and live with it" Sarafina said, explaining that there was no way to end the feeling and that someone could only learn to deal with it. Sarafina saw the look of disappointment on Tamas' eyes as she realized that she was going to have to

"So I'm stuck with this feeling forever?" Tama asked, wondering if there was any way to get rid of the feeling she felt.

"For as long as you love him" Sarafina said, and watched at Tama looked up at her with a pitiful look. One that told her that she was torn between her love for Simba and the feeling in her chest.

"Well… when's the soonest I can talk to him about it?" Tama asked, wanting to be able to talk to him as soon as she could to attempt to help ease the pain she felt in her chest.

"When's the soonest-" Sarafina started but was interrupted by a huge boom of thunder. Sarafina and Tama looked up to see that a large and menacing storm was racing there way.

Both of them hadn't even noticed the hellish looking storm coming their way and were left speechless for a few moments by the size and color of the approaching clouds.

"That's not good…" Tama said quietly and saw Sarafina quickly turn foot and began marching off into the other directions. "Where are you going?" Tama asked, wondering why she was walking out further into the pride lands instead of towards Pride Rock.

"To find Simba" Sarafina said, marching off in the direction that he left in. Tama then realized that Simba was still out there and began to feel uneasy and sick to her stomach at the idea of him getting caught in another storm. Everything Simba was away from Pride Rock, or any safe place, it seemed like the world just had to throw a giant storm their way to mess everything up.

Just as Sarafina was about to enter the tall grass to chase Simba down, Simba himself came out and nearly walked right into Sarafina before adjusting his course. Simba looked at them to see they both had looks of reliefs on their faces and knew that they were probably looking for him.

"So I'm guessing you were about to look-" Simba started, but was cut off by another huge boom of thunder, which this time was close enough to shake nearby trees. Simba felt Sarafina pull him by the mane and start to walk in the direction of Pride Rock, which told him that she wanted to seek shelter before the storm hit.

The three started to run towards Pride Rock as the winds started to pick up around them and the thunder getting louder each time it went off. The winds were blowing hard enough to where the three found it hard to keep Pride Rock in front of them as the wind was able to blow them to the side. The problem was that they were on the open plains and there was nothing to block or break the wind apart, so they were getting hit full force.

Sarafina, Simba, and Tama made it back to Pride Rock what looked like to be a few minutes before the storm would be hitting, and were glad to see that everyone had made it back inside Prick Rock in time.

"Simba!" Nala yelled, running up to him and tackling him while lockings lips with him. SImba was surprised by her reaction but brushed it off as her probably being worried that he would yet again be stuck in the same cave taking shelter from a storm.

"Love you to" Simba said, giving her a nuzzle before she got off of him and helped him up.

"Simba, Nala, Tama, Kula, Tojo, Ariya, Malka, Chumvi…" Simba and Nala heard Sarafina say, counting off their names when she laid eyes on each of them. "Mheetu… where's Mheetu?" Sarafina said sounding very scared and worried.

Simba and Nala looked around the cave and each and every lion, yet none of them were Mheetu. "Nala, where did he go?!" Sarafina said marching up to Nala and holding her in place, clearly having entered full mother mode.

"I-I don't know he was with Tojo" Nala said, fearing that something may have happened to Mheetu, and right now was a terrible time for something bad to happen.

"Tojo!" Sarafina roared and watched as he raced up to her, hearing the way she sounded and knew she was ready to go on a rampage.

"Yes?" Tojo said in a shaky voice, clearly seeing that Sarafina was pissed.

"Where is my son?" Sarafina said, getting into his face.

"I…" Tojo started, but then paused as he looked around for Mheetu, but didn't see him. "I don't know. He was with me but then he said you wanted to see him at the waterhole around noon and then left" Tojo said, and saw Sarafinas reactions. She. Was. Pissed.

Sarafina let out an unstable sign, before backing away from Tojo so she didn't inflict any injuries upon him if she were to snap. Sarafina realized that he had used that as an excuse to leave Pride Rock and explore the pride lands, which meant he was out there somewhere, and a terrible storm was about to hit.

"I need to find him. Stay here" Sarafina said to the three adolescents.

"I'll look with you" Simba said, stepping up, but Sarafina stopped him instantly.

"No chance in hell you're going out there" Sarafina said. Simba when to protest, but felt Nala start to drag him back as Sarafina rejected his request.

"She's right, you can't go out there. It's too dangerous" Nala said, not wanting Simba to have to risk his life yet again. She knew that her brother was very important, but in a worst-case scenario, she couldn't bear to lose both of them in the same day.

Simba knew that he was at a disadvantage with both of them protesting against them, but if Mheetu was out there and in need of help, he wasn't going to sit by when he knew he could help him. "I was asking for permission" Simba said walking past Sarafina, knowing that what he just said was very disrespectful.

"Simba" Sarafina warned, not wanting to have to do this in a time like now. Sarafina saw that Simba turned around and looked back towards her. "I will not have this conversation in a time like now" Sarafina said, making it clear that she wasn't going to try to talk him out of it, she was just going to force him back inside.

"Good, because neither will I. Every second we spend arguing here that storm gets closer and closer meaning we have less time to find Mheetu" Simba said, turning around and running out of Pride Rock.

"Simba wait!" Nala yelled, running after him. Simba turned around to see that Nala was running towards him, and stopped in front of him before knocking him over once again and locking him in a deep passionate kiss. Simba returned the kiss for a short time before breaking it and standing back up.

"I love you Simba. So damn much. Promise me you'll come back" Nala said, knowing that what he was about to do was like suicide and there was a chance that he wasn't going to return at all.

"I promise, and I love you too" Simba said nuzzling into her.

"Goodbye, and good luck" Nala said, feeling tears make their way towards her eyes but kept strong for Simba and didn't let them fall.

"Not goodbye, but see you later" Simba said, telling her the exact same words he told her before leaving to start his second trial with Kula awhile ago. Nala realized that his words were the same as before, and smiled upon feelings slightly more relieved.

Nala felt Simba give her one last quick kiss, darting his tongue into her mouth for what seemed like a millisecond, before pulling away and running out towards the pride lands. Nala felt sad upon seeing him running away, wondering if it would be the last time she would ever see him alive, but she pushed those thoughts away, not wanting to doubt his ability to bring Mheetu home safe.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba wasn't sure where Sarafina would be looking, but his plan was to cover the entire northern and western areas. Simba had a feeling that Mheetu would be there as they were the furthest from Pride Rock and held the most adventure out of the rest of the territory.

SImba started to sprint as fast as he could against the wind and knew that calling out for him wouldn't work once he caught to the western border as is was most canyons and hills, causing the wind to whistle loudly which would distort any call.

Simba wasn't sure how long it would be until the rain would start, but he knew that once it did, he was going to have to find Mheetu and fast due to the fact that Mheetu knew nothing of survival and would most likely perish. Simba was looking out for any sign of movement and finally saw some not too far ahead in the tall grass.

"Mheetu!" Simba called our once close enough, wondering if that was him trying to take shelter from the wind in the tall grass. Simba watched as the figure stood up, revealing who it was.

"Jason?" Simba asked surprised, not having expected to see him twice in the same day. Simba saw that Jason also had a look of surprise on his face and was wondering what Simba was doing out here.

"Red mane? What're you doing all the way out here?" Jason asked, wondering why Simba wasn't all cooped up in Pride Rock which was warm and safe

"Looking for Mheetu. He's a small cub like seven months old. He sorta got lost out here exploring and I'm trying to find him" Simba said, wondering if Jason knew where he was.

"Oh, yea? I saw a little lion not too long ago at the top of the gorge" Jason said, recalling that he looked around that age.

"Thanks. Now I would recommend finding some shelter" Simba said, knowing the storm would hit any minute now. Upon exiting the tall grass, simba was nearly swept off his paws by the winds an led forgot that it was getting worse every second that went by, and sprinted off in the direction of the gorge,

Simba looked behind him and saw that Jason was running after him, but didn't know why. "What are you doing?!" Simba shouted over the loud wind.

"Helping you get your friend back!" Jason shouted back. Jason saw that Simba slowed down a little to allow him to catch up.

"No offense, but why do you want to help me. I sorta ruined your life!" Simba asked. Unlike last time, them helping each other wouldn't benefit Jason in any way, so Simba was curious as to why Jason was offering his services.

"Got nothing better to do!" Jason replied. Simba wasn't really sure if Jason was telling the truth or not, and found it weird that he was so willing to help him all of a sudden, and there was the possibility that he was leading him to the gorge as part of a trap, but right now he didn't really have any other leads as to where Mheetu could be, so he didn't have much of a choice when it came to trusting him.

Simba and Jason continued on their way to the gorge while the storm around them continued to throw obstacles in there way such as winds and debris which was effective at slowing the down. The only thing going through Simba's mind was the fact that Mheetu may not even be at the gorge anymore, making their trip to it potentially pointless.

Upon arriving at one edge of the gorge, Simba and Jason began to look for potential spots that Mheetu may have been hiding in, which left a lot to be searched as there were many bushes and overgrowth that a lion his size could easily hide in. Simba knew that if Mheetu was caught out in a storm like this, it wouldn't take long for him to either freeze to death or drown, both of which were horrible ways to die making him even more determined to find him.

Simba and Jason had searched a fraction of the bushes and other places Mheetu could be hiding in when the first few drops of rain began to hit. At their current rate, it would take them at least half an hour to search the entire length of the gorge, and they didn't have half an hour.

"Simba! What do you know about him?! Does he have like preferred hiding spots or something?!" Jason called out, wondering if there were spots that they were more likely to find him.

"I don't know! I don't know him well enough to know something like that!" Simba said, trying to search as fast as he could. Simba was in the middle of search in a patch of tall grass when his eyes scanned over a fallen tree in the distance. The tree had fallen in such a way that the truck was still partially buried, yet there was a spot that a small animal could fit in and be completely underground. Simba didn't know why, but he had a feeling that if you needed to hide, that was the place to do it.

Simba quickly finished searching the grass before skipping over some other potential hiding places to check the tree. Upon arriving at the tree, Simba noticed that the hole was much deeper than he had originally thought and more spacious.

"Mheetu! You in there?!" Simba called down into the hole, knowing that his voice could be heard if he was inside. After waiting a few seconds, Simba caught the glimpse of what appeared to be light reflecting off a pair of green eyes and knew that it had to be Mheetu.

"Simba?" Simba heard in a quiet and shy voice, wondering if it was who he thought it was. Upon hearing this, Simba knew that it was Mheetu and that they had to get going fast if they didn't want to get poured on.

"Yea, It's me. Come on, let's get out of here and back to Pride Rock" Simba said, encouraging Mheetu to get out of the hole.

"I don't want to leave. I'm scared" Mheetu said. Simba sighed upon hearing this and knew that Mheetu was scared of the menacing storm that was heading their way, but he didn't have a choice and he really didn't care what Mheeut thought.

"It's not safe here so let's get going" Simba said, reaching down and dragging him out. Normally Simba would have talked Mheetu into coming out, but right now he didn't have the time to do that and knew that any second now the rain would start to increase rapidly at which point it would be nearly impossible to travel.

"Good. You found the kid now let's get going" Jason said, not wanting to see what the storm had to offer. At first, Mheetu was frightened by the hyena but quickly realized that this one wasn't here to hurt them, but was only trying to help them.

The three began to make their way towards Pride Rock, hoping to get there before it began to rain harder, but shortly after they began to head back, it became obvious that the rain was increasing and the real storm was starting to hit. Simba knew that it would be possible to get himself back to Pride Rock easily, but the problem was that Mheetu was a lot like Kula. Afraid of the storm and would be unwilling to step out of his comfort zone.

"Alright Simba, you got the kid now get out of here!" Jason said, starting to split off and heading his own way.

"Wait, you're not coming with us?!" Simba asked surprised. The mother of all storms was coming their way and Jason was thinking of splitting up which just seemed like plain suicide.

"To Pride Rock?! A den full of lions?! Ha! I can think of better ways to die!" Jason yelled back with some humor present in his voice, before disappearing out of sight in the rain and tall grass. Simba didn't really know if Jason would live to see the end of the storm but had an idea that if he was confident to peel off like that, it meant that he was confident in his ability to survive.

"Simba let's go come on!" Mheetu wined, not wanting to stay out any longer than he had to. Simba began to lead Mheetu back towards Pride Rock and was satisfied by the progress that they were making. At their current rate, and assuming that the rain wouldn't pick up, they would be able to get back safe and easy enough.

Simba was currently jogging alongside Mheetu so that he would get too far ahead when he started to notice that Mheetu was having a hard time keeping up with him due to the wind and the ground that was starting to turn to mud. Simba knew that it was because of his age and size and there was nothing that he could really do.

Then it hit him, and he felt dumb for not thinking of this before. He could make much better time if he were to just carry him. "Mheetu, get on my back" Simba said, stopping and leaning down a bit so that Mheetu could climb on.

"Why?" Mheetu asked, not seeing a reason to get on his back. Mheetu thought that what they were doing now was working just fine so in his defense, there was no reason to change the way they were currently doing things.

"Come on just do it" Simba said, not wanting to waste any more time. They had been lucky that the rain hadn't made travel impossible at this point, and Simba knew that there was going to be running out any time now.

Without saying anything else, Mheetu decided to trust Simba and his decision and climbed on his back, knowing that he had much more experience than most in these kinds of situations. Mheetu found it hard to hold on once he was on Simba's back, and had to result in sinking his claws into his shoulders in order to prevent from sliding off, but he didn't seem to mind.

Simba felt Mheetu dig his claws into his shoulder for grip, much as Kula had done, and what made matters worse was that he was using his shoulders to run, but he didn't let the pain slow him down. With Pride Rock insight, all Simba did was focus on it, being glad that he could still see it, but he was glad too soon, as the second he obtained a sight of it, the rain started to pick up so quickly that he lost it in the haze.

Simba could no longer see it, but he still had a good idea where it was. Fog and other visibility restrictors were now starting to set it, making it nearly impossible to see just about anything in front of him. Simba was running towards where Pride Rock would be when he suddenly came upon a hill that was in the process of being turned to mud and began to slide down it. Simba felt Mheetu hold on tighter as they picked up speed while sliding, causing him to sink his claws even deeper into the muscle on his shoulder.

Due to the fog and rain, Simba had no idea where the bottom of the hill was or what was at the bottom of it, and was keeping his eyes out for anything that would tell him he was nearing the bottom. Out of nowhere, Simba saw where the hill began to slope back upwards and jumped off the hill and to the other side before he crashed at the bottom and risked hurting himself.

Simba landed awkwardly on the other side ended up twisting his paw, nearly breaking it, but was still able to regain his balance and stop himself from falling over. Simba wasn't sure if he had sprained or broken his paw, but all he was sure of was that it hurt like hell and it was nearly impossible to climb up the slippery hill on it.

Slowly but surely, Simba found himself able to climb up the hill and reach the top without stumbling over and falling down it. Whether it was the fact that he was motivated to return Mheetu back to Pride Rock alive, or the fact that he was just plain out insane when it came to ignoring pain, he was just happy that he had overcome an obstacle like that.

Upon reaching the top, Simba found himself looking down at a very family stone. He recognized this stone as being the stone that was just a little left to the rock that they used to climb up to Pride Rock. Simba began to walk to the right, trying to see if they were where he thought they were and was relieved beyond words once he saw the large stone that marked the entrance to pride rock.

"We're here!" Simba called out to Mheetu, who he could feel was still holding on for all he was worth. Simba began to climb up the large stone and soon found himself at the entrance of Pride Rock, before finally entering into the safe and warm den.

Upon entering, Simba saw that Sarafina bolted up to him and removed Mheetu from his back, causing Mheetu's claws to cut him just a little, before frantically checking her son over for any injuries. Simba laid there as he watched Sarafina and Mheetu reassure each other that everything was ok with a smile on his face. He was happy that he was able to reunite them and that everything and everyone was ok.

Simba saw Sarafina wrap Mheetu up into a close hug after checking him over and making sure that he was ok, and got up himself, only to be knocked right back over by a worried Nala. Simba was about to say something when Nala smashed her lips on top of his and pinned him to the ground to make sure that he wasn't going anywhere. Simba returned the kiss for all he was worth and felt the emotion and passion Nala put into the kiss and felt bad knowing that those feelings were caused by her worrying about him.

Simba felt Nala break the kiss and watched as she frantically checked him over for any wounds that he would have got during the storm. Nala knew that Simba was like a magnet for bad events and life-threatening injuries, so she was both thrilled and relieved when she saw that he was ok besides some minor scratches on the side of his shoulder.

"I made a promise, Didn't I" Simba said, proving to Nala that he was right when he said he would return. Simba saw that Nala was currently smiling at him, before getting off of him so that he could get back up.

"Yes you did" Nala said, starting to walk in the directions of where she had been before waiting for him to return when she noticed that he was limping a lot and putting almost no weight on his front left paw. Simba saw that Nala noticed his limp and knew that he had to explain it to her quickly and tell her it was only twisted, not broken before he made her worry even more.

"I twisted it when I slide down a hill, but it isn't broken. Should be back to knew inside a day or two" Simba said, limping over to her and nuzzling her to further help calm her to the best of his ability.

"Sounds good" Nala said returning the nuzzle. Nala was enjoying the nuzzle when she heard her two best friends call out from the other side of the den.

"Simba!" Tama and Kula said in unison, running up to him and nuzzling him as Nala had just done.

"Hey" Simba said, glad to see his friends were ok. Simba looked past them to see that Ariya was standing behind them with a smile on her face.

"We heard what you did. Are you ok?" Kula asked, wondering if he was at all hurt.

"Twisted my paw a little, but other than that I'm fine" Simba said, reassuring his two friends that he was going to be ok. Simba saw that they both looked to be more relaxed upon hearing this, and was happy to see that everything seemed to be going good now.

"Well, we got a nice warm spot in the back of the cave if you want to join us" Tama offered.

"Sure" Simba said, beginning to limp towards the corner of the den. Upon laying down, Nala laid down on his right and Kula laid down next to him on his left. Simba could tell that Kula still had a fear of storms like this by the way she was trying to seek comfort from the storm by keeping close to him.

"So, how did you find Mheetu?" Tama said lying down in front of Simba, and Ariya took her spot next to Tama.

"Remember that hyena from this morning?" Simba asked, knowing that Tama couldn't have forgotten but asked anyway.

"Yea" Tama said, remember how she hated hyenas.

"Wait what hyena?" Nala asked, wondering if Simba was attacked again by hyenas. Simba realized that Nala, Kula, and Ariya had no idea what he was talking about and knew he was going to have to try to explain it in a way to make them realize that he wasn't all that bad.

"Well, let me give you guys some back story. So basically there is this hyena named Jason, and he was a former leader of a hyena clan that works for some lion who wanted me dead. He was the one in charge of the attacks against me in the past, and due to his repeated failure, he was exiled. So after our hunting lesson this morning, he confronted me and told me he turned good. I didn't believe him at first, but he did give us some info, and Tama tried to kill him once or twice but I held him back. Anyway, I was searching by the western border for Mheetu when I stumbled upon him. I asked him if he had seen anyone matching his description, and he told me yes, by the gorge. I wasn't sure if he was trying to lure me into a trap or not, but I trusted him seeing as he was my only lead, and sure enough, I found Mheetu hiding in a hole under a fallen tree. If it weren't for him, I don't think I would have ever found him" Simba said. Everyone was surprised to hear that out of all people who helped Simba out today, it was a hyena who had previously been trying to kill him.

"Wait, so do you think that what he told us about this lion and whatnot the morning may have been the truth?" Tama asked, shocked that Jason would help him like that.

"I would say yes, but I wouldn't lose sleep over it. I don't anyone falling for the old trick of helping someone like this to gain their trust, only to betray them once they turn their back to you" Simba said. Tama was relieved to know that Simba was still considering the fact that this could indeed be a trap, but was still unsure how she felt about Jason.

"Well, who cares about the hyena. At least we have Mheetu back" Kula said, an everything agreed with her. The fact that both Simba and Mheetu were back and safe was the only thing that mattered right now.

"So… what do you want to guys want to talk about?" Ariya asked, wondering if they had anything they wanted to discuss. Seeing as they were stuck inside the den for as long as the storm was outside, and it looked to be one big storm, they were going to be here for a while.

"Anyone know what time it even is?" Nala asked, having lost track of what time it was as the sun was behind the impenetrable storm clouds.

"Midday? Maybe a little later" Simba said, knowing that it was still pretty early.

"Midday? Are you crazy? It at least has to be at least a few hours before sunset" Nala asked, not believe that it could possibly be that early.

"We woke up at dawn this morning, and this storm happened not that long after our hunting lesson, which only took a few hours, so I'd say around midday" Simba said. Upon hearing this the girls realized that he was right, and the meant having to spend even more time trapped in the den.

"Well, better start finding a way to pass the time" Tama said, knowing that she might die if she had to sit inside of a cave all day with nothing to do.

"Well anyone got any ideas?" Ariya asked looking at Tama, Nala, Simba, and then finally Kula who she noticed had fallen asleep against Simba. "Um… Kula?" Ariya asked, wondering if Kula had really fallen asleep that quickly or if she was just resting her eyes.

Upon hearing this, Tama and Nala looked over to see that Kula had already managed to fall asleep and laughed a little at hour their sister managed to do that. "Well that didn't take long" Tama said, feeling an urge to do a little teasing.

"Is that normal?" Ariya asked, not sure if Kula normally fell asleep like that, but since Tama said it didn't take that long, it made her wonder if this was something she normally did.

"For Kula to fall asleep?" Tama asked, wondering why Ariya asked such a simple question. Seeing as Kula was alive, of course she fell asleep to recharge.

"For her to fall asleep like that with him" Ariya said, motioning towards Simba. Upon looking over at Simba, Ariya saw that he had put his head down and looked to be resting as well, making her wonder if he didn't mind her sleeping on him like that.

"Oh, yea. We all do that" Tama said. Tama saw that Ariya was giving her a surprised look, and knew that this was probably something new to her. She knew she hadn't been here that long, but they always took naps with Simba if he was in the den throughout the day.

"Really? And you don't mind?" Ariya said, turning towards Nala this time, who was now resting the side of her head on the top of Simba's head.

"I could care less" Nala said with a little chuckle.

"Huh" Ariya said, observing how everyone was acting like this was something totally normal. In her pride, no one slept with anyone unless they were a couple and if you were caught sleeping with someone who was dating someone else, it usually caused drama and breakups, half the reason she enjoyed being here.

"So you just take turns sleeping with him? Even though you're his girlfriend?" Ariya asked, making sure she had all this right. Right now she was a little confused on how they all seemed to sleep with him yet it was like no one thought it was a big deal or cared.

"Sorta… yea" Nala started. "I sleep with him at night. Usually in snuggled up in his soft, warm, safe chest…" Nala said dreamily, seeming to drift off for a few seconds before focussing again. "Sometimes either Kula or Tama will sleep on top of him and like rest their head on his mane, which is just as soft. And like this morning, Tama was by his chest, I was on top, and Kula was by his back" Nala said.

"And you never fight over who gets what spot?" Ariya asked, wondering how their current way of doing things didn't lead to any drama.

"Well, for the most part, Nala's the only one who ever actually sleeps with him, and occasionally Kula or I pop in for a night" Tama said, clearing some things up. Now things made more sense to Ariya, but she was still unsure how Nala was so calm about other females sleeping with her male.

"But you never get jealous or like… I don't know… feel like he's cheating on you?" Ariya asked, amazed by Nala's calmness.

"No. I used to be a little jealous but-" "Little more than a little" Nala was saying before Tama cut in and corrected her. "Ok yeah, really jealous" Nala said with a chuckle, before continuing. "But I realized that Simba loves Tama and Kula like sisters, and they love him back as a brother, but he loves me and only me like a mate" Nala said. "Isn't that right?" Nala said to Simba this time. Ariya watched as Simba lifted his head up and shared a kiss with Nala that lasted a few seconds, before putting his head back down and closing his eyes. Nala looked back over and saw that Ariya still had a confused face, but Tama had a worried and dumbstruck face.

"What?" Nala said with a chuckle towards Tama upon seeing her facial expression.

"I mean… Simba and I are good friends… but I wouldn't say we love each other like siblings" Tama said, trying to hide the truth. Tama had no idea how Nala knew that, as she hadn't told Nala and the only person who knew was Sarafina, so she was wondering if she was just guessing or actually knew

"Oh come on, that a lie and you know it" Nala said laughing a little. "Simba told me" Nala finished. Upon hearing this, Tama knew she was beaten, but to her surprise, it didn't seem like anyone cared and Nala wasn't making a big deal about it.

"I… sure" Tama said, giving up, but at the same time not making it out to be a big deal.

"Wait, let me get this right. Simba loves Kula and Tama like Sisters, and Tama and Kula love Simba like a brother. But, Simba loves you, and only you like a lover, and you love him the same way?" Ariya said, trying to wrap her head around the idea.

"Yup" Nala said.

"Don't you guys ever sleep with the other boys?" Ariya asked, wondering why it seemed like they only slept with him.

"Because the other boys don't really respect us the way he does. They try to do all these annoying touchy things and mess with us while we try to sleep. But with him, all we do is lie down and he leaves us alone" Tama said.

"Are you dating anyone?" Ariya asked towards Tama, wanting to know if either Chumvi or Malka was her boyfriend.

"Yea, Malka" Tama asked, wondering where this was going.

"And does he ever get jealous that you sleep with Simba?" Ariya asked.

"I… don't know what he thinks" Tama said with a little chuckle. "But He's never brought it up before" Tama finished.

"Have you ever like kissed him before?" Ariya asked, wondering if they were an actual couple or just like good friends.

"No, I've never kissed anyone" Tama said, surprising Ariya.

"So you've never kissed him, and you sleep with another guy, yet you would still consider him your boyfriend?" Ariya asked, wondering how that made any sense.

"Yea. We might not kiss and whatnot like those two, but we still like to talk a lot, play games, and take walks with each other. Stuff like that" Tama said, explaining the backstory to that one.

"And does he consider you his girlfriend?" Ariya asked, wondering if it was one-sided or two-sided.

"Yea. He asked me if I would like to be his girlfriend when we're a lot younger, and after becoming good friends with him, I said yes" Tama said. Ariya was still confused about how they were boyfriend and girlfriend though, seeing as they never did many of the things normally couples did.

"But that's like being good friends" Ariya said, wanting Tama to see her point.

"True, but let me put it this way. If someone else were to ask me out, I would say no. Even though we may not do normally couply things, we are still really close. One day I'm sure we'll get into that stuff, but for now we just haven't" Tama said.

"So here's the real question. Who are you closer with. Simba? Or Malka?" Ariya asked. It seemed like she was much more fond of Simba, but she kept insisting that she liked Malka to.

"Um…" Tama said, taking a moment to think about. "I'm close with them In different ways. I'm open with Simba about a lot of things and whatnot, and I do a lot of fun things with Malka that Simba doesn't like to do. Such as games that are rough" Tama said.

"So basically this just boils down to there both important to you?" Ariya said, giving up on trying to make sense of Tama's relationship between the two boys.

"Let's just leave it at that" Tama said with a chuckle, not wanting to get any deeper than she wanted to.

"Anyway… anyone got any ideas on how to pass the time?" Nala asked, wondering if there was some game or activity that they could do. Nala looked at both Tama and Ariya and saw that they both looked dry on ideas.

"What is there to do?" Tama asked, not seeing there to be much of anything they could do in a cave during a thunderstorm.

"I don't know... maybe a game or something" Nala said, trying to think of anything.

"We could always do like truth or dare" Ariya suggested, not knowing of any other games that involved not moving or could be played indoors. Ariya looked around to see that Tama had a i sure look but Nala looked to be set on the idea.

"That's a great idea!" Nala said, remembering all the fun she had playing that game when she was younger.

"Yea I don't really like that game" Tama said, remember how she was given a dare that was both freezing and stupid.

"Why?" Ariya asked with an intrigued voice, wanting to know why Tama didn't like truth or dare.

"Because we dared her to jump in the waterhole when it was freezing one time" Nala said with a chuckle. Ariya looked over to see that Tama was wearing an unamused look, a clear sign that she still wasn't on good terms with that last dare.

"Come on, I think it would be fun" Ariya said, wanting to play it to try and pass some time. Ariya saw that Nala seemed set on the idea but Tama still appeared to be reluctant.

"Fine, but no daring anyone to do something crazy" Tama said, not wanting to have to do something dumb again. Thinking back on it, Tama wasn't even sure why she went through with the dare in the first place, seeing as she could have always just left.

"Great. Think they'll want to play?" Ariya asked, pointing towards Simba and Kula who still appeared to be asleep.

"Simba" Nala said, shaking Simba a little to wake him up. Nala watched as Simba lifted his head and looked over at her with a slightly confused look. "Wanna play truth or dare with us?" Nala asked, giving him a pleading look.

Simba saw the look Nala was giving him and felt like he just had to say yes. Something about that look just made the idea of saying 'No' seemed impossible. "Sure" Simba said, shifting around slightly so he was more or less sitting up, waking Kula up in the process.

"What time is it?" Kula asked with a yawn, wondering how long she had been asleep.

"You've been asleep for a grand total of probably ten minutes" Tama said, laughing at how Kula must have thought she had been asleep a lot than she really had.

"So what are you guys doing?" Kula asked, seeing that Simba was also up.

"We were gonna play truth or dare" Ariya said, saying it in a way that also asked her if she wanted to play with them.

"Sure" Kula said, always liking to find ways to embarrass people.

"Great, so who wants to go first?" Ariya asked. Normally, everyone wanted to go first to avoid having to do dumb stuff or tell the truth for as long as possible, but in the instance, Ariya wanted to know how everyone here played the game so she could change up her strategy if need be.

"I'll start us off this time" Tama said with a hint of playful vengeance in her voice, looking towards Kula. Everyone could tell by the sound of her voice and the obvious look she was given Kula, that they were going to be in for one hell of a night.

 **Guess all we can do know is hope Tama doesn't dare anyone to jump off a cliff or something like that. Sorry for the long wait, yet again lol. Been moving houses recently so I'm trying to find some time to write, and you can guess how that's going probably. Anyway, thanks for reading and like always, if you have any questions or comments, I'd like to hear them. With all that said and done, Mr_Toast Out!**


	19. Sorrow and Regret

**Simba's Pain Chapter 19**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back y'all! I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far and I haven't added something that ruined it for you lol. Also, I just want to say thanks to all the people who have taken the time to read this far and haven't given up on this story. Currently, this story has around 15,000 views, which doesn't sound like much, and around 5,000 views on the first two chapters alone of people not interested, but to the other people, I would just like to say thanks for sticking with me. Anyway, this chapter is taken place awhile after where the last chapter left off, but I will give some backstory to what happened during those months so it doesn't seem like there's just a giant grey area there. So there's not much to be said here, so as always, Enjoy!**

 **Discord: Mr_Toast#1697**

 **Story Discord: bit .ly /SimbasPain**

It had been around four months since the night of the big storm, and a lot had changed. Simba, Nala, Tama, and Kula had all been taking hunting lessons for a while now and we're starting to get much better, even to the point where they were starting to help out in some of the real hunts to get some hands-on experience.

Apart from hunting lessons, Simba was also getting lessons from Mufasa on the works of the kingdom and what would be expected of him in the future. Even more stress was being put on Simba as it was now nearing the dry season and Mufasa was working him overtime on what to do to prepare for the dry season to get order and balance within the kingdom.

Simba had a few run-ins with the hyenas, but for the most part, it was nothing that he couldn't handle. Simba had also seen Jason wandering around the pride lands, but he never approached him, wanting to leave him be.

As for Ariya, it was official that she had pretty much become a full member of Pride Rock. She would still want to visit her family and friends back home every once in a while, but Pride Rock is where she felt like she belonged.

Simba was currently returning to Pride Rock after a long and tiring day of doing nothing but listening to his father drilling him on how to be king. Upon entering Pride Rock, Simba was tackled and pinned down but Kula who was wearing a very playful look.

"You ready?" Kula said with excitement in her voice, having been waiting for Simba to return.

"Not today" Simba said in a tired tone, pushing her off of him and attempting to get up, but Kula got back on him wearing a much more serious but gentle expression this time.

"Come on. You promised" Kula said almost appearing to be pouting. Simba saw that look that Kula was wearing and felt like he couldn't say no to her. Apart from the cute look, she was giving him, he also felt guilty that he did indeed promise her that he would be ready when he got back.

"Kula I... Nevermind... Let's go" Simba said with a fake smile, not wanted to let her down or upset her. Kula saw right past his fake smile and the fake voice he used and knew now that something was bothering him. As far as Kula knew, Simba never broke promises and never went back on his word. When he said he was going to do something, he meant it. So for him to want to break one willingly gave her a clue that something was bugging him.

"What's wrong?" Kula asked, still holding him down to prevent him from escaping. Kula looked down to see that Simba was wearing an unsure look as if he were trying to hide something or think of something to say as a coverup, and knew exactly what he was planning on saying. "The truth, Simba" Kula said, not wanting to listen to any of his lies.

Kula heard Simba let out a long sigh, before returning eye contact. "I don't know... Well, I do know actually but... I guess I'm just tired and want a break from everything. To run away and have a day free of work and responsibility. The last two weeks have been nonstop work and I just haven't had any free time whats so ever. As soon as we finish hunting lessons I go with my father and don't get back until near sunset, and then I'm too tired to want to do anything else" Simba said, looking up to her in hope that she would have some cure for what he was going through.

"I... I'm sorry to hear that" Kula said, getting off Simba to allow him up.

"Don't be. It isn't your fault" Simba said, brushing the dirt off of him as he stood up. Simba looked over towards the den and stared at it for a while, drawing the attention of Kula in the process.

"What is it?" Kula said, walking up beside him and nuzzling into him.

"Just want to tell them where we'll be" Simba said, looking over at her and seeing as she gave him a nod, telling him that it was ok with her.

Upon walking in, Simba noticed that Nala was already waiting in their normal spot for him to return so she could get some sleep before they had to wake up at sunrise for their hunting lessons. Nala smiled at Simba as she saw his approaching her with a smile of his own, and watched as he walked up to her, before stopping just in front of her.

"Hey, I'm going to be back late. Kula is uhh... well I can't really say... but yea... I'll be back late" Simba said, losing confidence towards the end seeing the look she had on her face.

"Very well, on one condition" Nala said, and Simba had a good idea what this one condition was going to be. "Tell me what you're going to be doing" Nala said with a smirk. Nala knew that he wasn't going away to cheat on her or something like that, but Nala just wanted to know what he was going to be doing this late at night.

"Well... Just don't tell anyone but... Stargazing..." Simba said in a quiet voice, not wanting anyone else to hear. Upon telling her this, Simba was surprised to see that Nala had a bit of a confused face, and wondered what she didn't get about that.

"That's it? Stargazing? Why wouldn't she want anyone to know about that?" Nala asked. Wanting privacy for something like a romantic moment or having a breakdown was one thing, but not wanting people to know you were stargazing just seemed silly, as all you were doing was stargazing...

"I don't know... She just wants privacy" Simba said, not having an answer for her.

"Well don't keep her waiting" Nala said, motioning towards Kula who was looking in towards the den to see what he was doing.

"Oh yea right, be back soon. I love you" Simba said, leaning down further to nuzzle into her before she tucked her head in and drew him into a kiss.

"Love you too" Nala said breaking the kiss and bidding him farewell.

Simba turned around and made his way back towards were Kula was and noticed that she had a bit of a suspicious look on her face, and he wondered what he did this time to earn a look like that.

"What?" Simba said wondering why she was giving him the look.

"What took you so long?" Kula asked, wondering why it took him a few minutes to say goodbye.

"I had to say goodbye and reassure her I would spend some time with her" Simba said, hoping he wouldn't have to explain why he told her about her little secret.

"Well let's get going" Kula said, turning around and leading the way.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

The field that they used for stargazing was quite a while away and by the time Simba and Kula reached the field, it was officially dark and prime time for stargazing. The two walked over to their normal spot in the field and laid down in their normal positions with there backs on the ground, with Kula positioning herself so that she was snuggled into Simbas side and his arm was around for maximum protection.

"Amazing... Aren't they" Kula said, looking up at all the star in the night sky, with there being too many to even count.

"They sure are" Simba said, studying them as well.

"So do you think that Auntie and King Mufasa will allow you, and maybe us the day off tomorrow?" Kula asked, remembering how Simba said something about how he wanted to take tomorrow and be able to relax and spend some time with friends.

"I hope so" Simba said, not wanting to be pushed any harder than he already was.

Kula began to study Simba and noticed that he was leaner and fitter than he was before if that was even possible. Kula studied that his bodied had been working a lot harder than she could have ever imagined, and started to think that he was pushing himself too hard, almost to the point of it being unhealthy. It was one thing to work out and be all hero looking, but it was another to push yourself so hard to the point of breaking.

"You don't look good" Kula said in a worried tone, which Simba picked up on. In all honesty, besides being a little tired, Simba felt fine.

"What do you mean" Simba said. As far as he was concerned, he was fine.

"You look... different. I'm just afraid that you're pushing yourself too hard Simba" Kula said giving him a concerned look, and in return got a confusing one. "Just looking at you, you're like... shredded... beyond that... and it can't be healthy to be like this in shape" Kula said, almost acting like it was unnatural.

"What? Kula don't be ridiculous I'm fine" Simba said with a chuckle, but then stopped once he saw the look she was giving him. Simba saw that she was currently giving him the 'cub' eyes with tears lining them, and he knew that she wasn't about to start crying, she just wasn't blinking to add extra effect.

"Fine... How about we go to Rafiki right now?" Simba said trying to cheer her up a bit. Simba saw that Kula still had an upset face and wondered what was bugging her this time. "What?" Simba said, nuzzling her to try and cheer her up.

"I just... ya know... wanted to watch the stars but now this happened" Kula said, a little sad that their plan got canceled.

"Oh, well... there's always tomorrow, and the day after that, and so forth" Simba said trying to get her to see that there were other chances to do these things.

"Well... I guess we should get going and... yea" Kula said turning around and walking in the direction of Rafiki's tree. Simba was confused by her reactions and thought that she seemed almost a little depressed. It hadn't occurred to him that these stargazing sessions could have meant so much to her.

"I'm sorry about the stargazing sessions" Simba said, wanting her to know that he did feel bad for what was happening for her.

"It's alright Simba" Kula said, turning around and smiling at him, before turning back and leading the way once again.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Upon reaching Rafiki's tree, Simba and Kula looked around for any signs that Rafiki was still awake, seeing at it was night and there was the possibility that he could be asleep.

"Rafiki?" Kula said, calling out to him, and moments later they saw him pop out upside down from his tree. Both Simba and Kula gave him a weirded out look at he was famous for doing these kinds of weird things, and then at the end making it seem like it was nothing.

"And what would the prince and such a beautiful lioness being doing dis late at my tree?" Rafiki said, eyeing the two to see who would speak up first.

"Well... Simba is a little sick... kinda... and I was wondering if you could just check him out and make sure he was truly fine" Kula said, wondering if Rafiki would have the time for that this late into the night.

"Why of course" Rafiki said, disappearing back into his tree, most likely waiting for them to follow. Taking that as their queue, both Simba and Kula made their way up into Rafiki's tree.

Upon entering, they saw Rafiki moving some things around and doing some prep work for Simba, and once he was done he patted the ground where he wanted Simba to lay down.

"Now, wat is your definition of 'kinda sick'" Rafiki asked, wondering if he was truly sick, or was just feeling down.

"Well, I was just kinda studying him, and while doing that, I noticed that he's... well... like really in shape, almost to the point of it being unhealthy" Kula said, looking at the veins in his arm which seemed to bulge in unnatural ways.

"Studying him as in... checking him out?" Rafiki said with sarcasm in his voice and got a very unamused look from Kula. Rafiki smiled lightly at her reaction and started to exam Simba.

"Hmm" Rafiki said, poking Simbas arm as if he was unsure of what it was, earning a confused glance from both Simba and Kula. "When did dis happen?" Rafiki said, studying Simba's upper arm.

"When did what happen?" Simba asked, unsure of what Rafiki was talking about.

"Your arm is slightly broken" Rafiki said, making both Simba and Kula wear looks of complete confusion. His arm looked fine. It wasn't swollen, he wasn't feeling or complaining about any pain, and he hadn't done anything to break it recently.

"What? Impossible" Simba said, knowing that if his arm was broken, he would be able to feel it.

"You also have a torn shoulder, and yes, you do look sick" Rafiki said, walking away and picking up some weird purple flower looking thing. Simba looked over at Kula and saw that she was giving him a hurt look, probably thinking that he was trying to hide all these things from her

when in reality he felt completely fine.

"Here, eat dis" Rafiki told Simba, holding the flower out in front of him. Simba took one sniff and darted his head back, revolted by the smell it had to offer.

"There is no way I'm gonna eat th-" Simba was saying, before Rafiki hit a pressure point in his jaw, causing his mouth to open, shoving the plan inside, and hitting the same pressure point again, causing him to both swallow and close his mouth again.

"There is always a way" Rafiki said, watching as Simba visually displayed the fact that the plant smelled terrible and tasted even worse.

"What was that thing?" Simba said, wondering if it was medicine or poison.

"It will help you heal" Rafiki said, opening Simbas mouth and inspecting his tongue.

"But I feel fine" Simba said, wondering why he needed all this help if he was truly fine.

"Which is what worries me. Most people who break an arm and tear a shoulder aren't able to walk around perfectly wit no pain" Rafiki said, getting all serious for a few moments. "Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment. Zazu!" Rafiki called out, and Zazu flew down and greeted him with a bow. "Go get Sarafina, Nala, and Tama. Oh and, tell them the news" Rafiki said and watched as Zazu flew off to Pride Rock.

"Was it really necessary for Nala and Tama to get involved?" Simba asked, knowing those two would most likely get worked up and whatnot for no reason. Rafiki chuckled a little when Simba said, also knowing the reason why Simba asked, but wouldn't give anything away related towards his plan.

"Of course. They will be the ones looking out for you" Rafiki said, and watched as Simba gave him a bit of an annoyed look. The truth was that Simba was perfectly fine, but if he could convince the girls that he had a broken arm and torn shoulder, they would force him to take it easy for a few days, which would help take the stress off his body.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

It wasn't long before Sarafina, Nala, and Tama showed up to Rafiki's tree to check up on Simba to see how he was doing. Upon entering, Sarafina was the first to make it over to Simba and was confused to see that he looked perfectly fine, and wondered if Zazu had heard Rafiki correctly when explaining his condition.

After seeing that Simba was fine, Sarafina gave him over to Nala and Tama who had yet to check on him to be able to ask Rafiki why they were called here. Unless it was something serious that required him needing help getting back to Pride Rock, he never called for him in the manner.

"His arm and shoulder look fine, and I checked his forehead and his temperature seems fine" Sarafina said, approaching Rafiki. Sarafina saw as Rafiki turned around wearing a bit of a mischievous grin, and had a feeling of where this was going.

"That's because his arm isn't broken, shoulder isn't torn, and isn't sick. That was a lie" Rafiki said, earning a bit of an annoyed look from Rafiki. She had already been sleeping when Nala woke her up with the news about Simba and ran over here only to find out it was all a lie. "But..." Rafiki said, earning her attention once again. "They don't know that" Rafiki said, pointing to the girls who were also confused by how Simba appeared to be fine.

"Why would you lie to them. You know how they get sometimes when stuff like this happens" Sarafina said, looking back over to see that Nala was feeling his forehead to tell if he was running a fever.

"Because, Simba needs a break" Rafiki said, earning another confused look from her. "He's tired, and when I said sick, I didn't mean a fever, he's working himself too hard between his father's lessons and de hunting lessons. Make sure he gets some rest and takes it easy de next few days" Rafiki said, earning an understanding look from Sarafina this time.

"Well, I'll talk to Mufasa in the morning and tell him the... news... But for now we'll all head back and get some sleep" Sarafina said, feeling tired once again as this wasn't an emergency.

"Alrighty Girls, Simba, let's head back" Sarafina said, turning around and descending from his tree. The four adolescents followed Sarafina down the tree and all begin an uncomfortably quiet walk back.

"So..." Tama said, breaking the silence after what felt like forever. "How did you break your arm" She said, looking over at Simba who continued to stare at the ground.

"I... Don't know. It doesn't even hurt. It's just stupid" Simba said, annoyed that he was going to most likely be forced to take it easy and relax the next few days until Rafiki cleared him.

"Don't gotta get worked up over it..." Tama said, hearing the way he sounded and being able to tell that he was annoyed and frustrated.

"I wouldn't be if I could just be left alone" Simba said, increasing his walking speed to try and escape the group.

"What do you mean by that. We're trying to help you" Tama said, speeding up to match his speed.

"I mean that if you three could just leave me alone I wouldn't be in such a bad mood" Simba fired back, picking up his pace a little more to send Tama the message that he wanted to be left alone.

"Well I'm sorry for being concerned for your safety and well being" Tama said, trying to guilt-trip him, but only irritated him further.

"I survived seven months without your help and concern so I'm sure I can last one night" Simba said, turning around and getting into Tama's face with a bit of an angry face.

Tama quickly slapped Simba across the face, and just before this, Simba was able to see a slight shine in her eyes which undoubtedly had to be tears, before running away down the trail to escape the others, leaving a few audible sobs behind.

Simba started to rub the area of his face Tama smack while watching her run down the trail getting smaller and smaller by the second, wondering where he went wrong.

"So are you going to stand there all night or go after her" Sarafina said in a bit of an angry voice, wondering how Simba, the most selfless person she knew, could be so heartless and unforgiving to one of the most important people in his lives. Simba looked over at Sarafina to see that she had an angry facial expression, and then it hit him that he had made a colossal mistake.

Simba quickly sprinted off after Tama, knowing that she had run in the direction of his hideout, as this trial split not too far ahead and she chose the left trail, which was in the direction of his hideout. Simba could tell that he was starting to gain on her, but she entered the tall grass way ahead of him and feared that he would lose her and have to wait all night to be able to talk to her.

The last thing Simba wanted was to have to wait a long time with Tama most likely hating him, thinking that he probably didn't care about her, when in truth he was concerned for her, and only wanted to make things right again. Simba made his way into the tall grass and slowed down when he neared his hideout so she wouldn't be able to hear him coming.

Simba listened in just behind the tall grass and could hear Tama sobbing to herself, and was confused by this. He didn't think that his words could have had such an impact on her, and leave her in such a devastated state.

Simba was wondering how he was going to approach her and what kind of conversation he was going to need to have with her to make her understand that he wasn't trying to mean and be the bad guy in this situation. After thinking for a moment or two, Simba concluded that there was going to be no easy way to talk to her about this and that he was just going to have to go out and wing it.

"Tama?" Simba said, trying to use a soft and soothing voice to start with, hoping that she would pick up on that and realize that he just want to talk with her and not fight.

"Go away" Tama said, sniffling and trying to stop the tears, but was only successful in slowing them down.

"Tama... look... I know you don't care about what I have to say, and probably don't want to hear this, but I'm sorry for what I said... I'm just... I'm just tired and I took that as a reason to yell at you" Simba said, knowing that that wasn't going to work, but it was at least worth a try nonetheless.

Instead of hearing a response from Tama, all Simba heard was her beginning to sob to her self once again, ignoring him. Simba was unsure of whether he wanted to wait for an actual response or try and comfort her, because last time he tried to comfort her without any warning, it ended up with her punching him in the face.

Simba went to say something but never did as he was unsure of what he was going to say. Simba thought over his options in his head and concluded which would be the best one. If he did nothing, Tama would most likely think that he didn't like her anymore and it would ruin their friendship, and if he did do something, he would probably get hit in some way, but at least she would know he still cared.

Simba leaned over and lightly nuzzled Tama, and in response, Tama gave him a death glare that told him to go away or risk being hurt. Simba ignored her glare on continued to nuzzle into her. Upon doing this, Simba heard her sobs turn into growls, letting him know that this was his last chance to leave her alone, and instead of backing off as any normal person would, he responded with his secret weapon.

"I love you" Simba said, knowing that those three words were the key to breaking Tama and letting her know he only wanted to help. Upon saying this, Simba heard her stop growling, and was a little surprised when she slammed her face into his neck, burying it as deep as she could, and let an ocean of tears fall.

Tama let herself fall completely into Simba and didn't try to stop the tears from flowing. For some reason in a time like this, that always had the effect of breaking her. Tama had no idea why she was so affected when he told her he didn't need her help and was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with her.

Simba never knew why Tama was always so affected when he told her that he loved her. Every time he told Nala that he loved her, she would always get happy and romantic, but every time he told Tama, it always results in her crying.

Simba could hear that she was trying to say something, but like last time he could make out anything through all the sobs, hiccups, and the muffled sound of her face be buried so deep in him. Like before, all Simba did was hold her tight and close and wait for her to stop crying on her own, voicing soothing comments to help her calm down along the way, and not long after, it seemed that she had control of herself once again.

Simba heard her say something all of a sudden but was unable to make it out through the muffled sound. "Tama?" Simba said, wondering if she was trying to say something or if that was her just sighing in misery.

"I'm sorry for hitting you..." Tama said, removing her face from her neck and resting in on his shoulder.

"And I'm sorry for saying what I said back there. I don't know why I said it and I don't have an excuse so... I guess all I can do I apologize" Simba said, hoping she would accept his apology. Simba had no idea why Tama was so fragile some days and stronger than rock the next, but all he could say for her was that she needed to stop trying to deal with everything on her own, and if she needed something, he would be there for her.

"It's ok" Tama said, nuzzling into his for some comfort.

"Tama... why don't you ever talk to me about your emotions? You know I'm here to help" Simba asked, knowing that she probably wouldn't give him a straight answer, but it was at least worth it to try and ask for one.

"I don't know..." Tama said, burying her face back into his neck to try and escape from the real world, even though that wouldn't work.

"Come on... Please tell me" Simba said, nuzzling her a bit to try and get her to talk to him.

"I... I just don't want to talk about it because whenever I think about it I just feel sick" Tama said, not sure if that was the real reason, but the truth is that she's not even sure why she doesn't want to talk about it.

"But Isn't it better to feel sick for a few moments then it is to have to live with all those emotions in you for months at a time?" Simba asked, trying to understand her logic.

Upon saying this, Simba felt Tama snuggle deeper into him and stay like that, not giving him a response to his question at all. Simba sighed a little, as this was her way of ignoring him and trying to avoid having to answer any of his questions, and he knew he could forcefully remove her away from him and make her answer because that would only make her hate him more.

Simba let Tama stay like that for what seemed like a while, not wanting to bother her or do anything to make her even more uncomfortable. Finally, after countless minutes went by, Simba felt her remove her face from his neck and watched as she started to stare in his eyes with an unreadable look, one he had never seen anyone wear.

Before Simba was able to make sense of her look, Tama leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on his muzzle, and before he was even able to react to her doing this, she quickly broke it and pulled away, embarrassed and ashamed by what she had done. Simba was Nala's boyfriend, and she felt guilty knowing that she had stolen a kiss that didn't belong to her.

"I-I'm sorry Simba... I... I d-don't know why I d-did that I... I'm so sorry... please forgive me" Tama said, trying to escape his grasp but found out that he wouldn't let her go. Tama looked up to see that Simba was looking down at her with a confused look as she knew that he probably thought that she was some sick disgusting person for what she did.

Tama watched as Simba started to slowly inch forward and Tama started to try and escape harder, but still found it impossible to get free, and before she knew it, Tama felt him press his muzzle onto hers, drawing her into a much deeper kiss.

Tama was shocked at first, but slowly eased into the kiss, slowly slipping her tongue into his mouth and starting to feel around. Tama knew that was she was doing was beyond wrong, and that nothing good was going to come from this. He was her friend. Her brother. Not her mate. Not her lover. Nor her's to kiss. Simba belonged to Nala yet here she was, deeply kissing and gentle making out with him despite all of that.

Tama knew that there were going to be major consequences for this and that she had made a mistake that she would never be able to fix. Nala was going to hate her, and force Simba to choose between her or Tama, and would pick Nala because he loved her more, and Tama would lose her best friend and brother. Someone who she couldn't imagine not having in her life.

Tama knew that it was too late to turn around, and she might as well enjoy the moment why she could. Tama felt Simba start to walk them back and before Tama could tell where they were going, Simba had her pinned under her. Upon doing this, Tama let herself completely relax, knowing that his body would shield her from any danger that would pose a threat from her, and focused only on the kiss.

Tama felt Simba break the kiss, and for the first time since the kiss started, Tama started to fear what was to come. Tama slowly opened her eyes to see that Simba was looking down at her, and there was a strand of saliva that belonged to both of them that was still connected to their muzzles.

Tama watched as Simba looked down at her, before getting off of her and helping her back up.

"I..." Tama said, not even knowing where to start, as her head was spinning in ten thousand different directions over what had just happened. "What... but... why?" Tama said, starting to cry again.

Simba was expecting her to be confused, as he was also a little confused, but what he hadn't expected was for her to have another breakdown. Simba walked up to her and gently tried to comfort her, in which she slammed her face into his neck and wrapped her arms around him as if she was trying to prevent him from falling or something.

"Tama... Are you... Uh... Ok?" Simba asked, having no idea why she was crying. At first, she was hurt by what he said, but now he had no idea what was causing her to breakdown.

"No, I'm not ok!" Tama screamed, pushing him away. "I'm not ok because you're a fucking idiot!" Tama said, now appearing to be both seething in rage and crying.

Simba was taken back when she said this. Kissing her like that wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done, but he was a little surprised by what she had to say.

"Tama... I'm sorry I kissed you like that... I... I'm sorry" Simba said, not knowing what to say or do right now.

"What? Ugh, No. I actually enjoyed the kiss, but guess what happens now. Nala finds out and is going to flip her shit and then she'll make you choose between her or me, and then I'll lose you forever" Tama said, seeming to have calmed down a lot since her last statement.

"Tama, clam down. Nala isn't like that. Maybe at one point, yes, but if we talk to her about it I'm sure she'll understand" Simba said, trying to get Tama to understand that Nala wasn't going to hate her and that if they made her see it wasn't anything romance based, it would be ok.

"Understand what?! That you cheated on her?!" Tama asked, wondering how his plan would work.

"No... but..." Simba started... but then got an idea. "Hey, how about this. Let's go talk to Auntie Sarafina and she can maybe help us out a bit" Simba said, wanting to know if Tama liked that idea better then his original plan.

"Oh yea, That's great!" Tama started in a sarcastically happy voice. "And let's just go tell the whole fucking pride while were at it!" Tama said, getting emotional again.

"Ok... well..." Simba said, not knowing what to do. "Tama... will you please just listen to me?" Simba asked, walking up to her and sitting down. Simba saw that Tama looked up at him with tears in her eyes and running down her cheeks, and felt bad for being the reason she was in pain for the second time this night. Simba looked down at her and took a moment to observe her. She was slumped over, with her ears laid in a somewhat flattened position, tears were trailing down her face, under her chin, and then falling on the ground, with each one of her breaths being shakier than the previous one. Simba saw this about her and knew that this wasn't anything like her. She was always standing up, with her ears held high, and there was never a tear in sight. So right now, she was almost unrecognizable.

"I promise you, I swear on my life, that no matter what, after tonight, you will still be my sister, and I will still be your brother. I won't let Nala take that away from us" Simba said nuzzling into her and was relieved when he felt her nuzzle back.

"I..." Tama started... but then stopped, not knowing how she wanted to say what she said. "I... Don't want to fall in love with you. But... after now..." Tama said, not knowing how to finish.

"That wasn't the right kind of kiss" Simba said with a little chuckle.

"Yea it was. Didn't you feel my tongue in your mouth?" Tama asked, not sure how he thought that it wasn't a 'romantic' kiss.

"I did, but what I meant was there are two... types of kisses I guess. Deep kisses and passionate kisses. Trust me. That wasn't passionate" Simba said, wanting to reassure her that they didn't do anything... too wrong.

"But it was a kiss nonetheless" Tama said, wanting Simba to understand that it didn't matter what kind of kiss it was, a kiss was a kiss.

"I'm sure Nala will understand" Simba said, nuzzling into her a bit. Simba felt Tama return the nuzzle, but could tell that she was hurt on the inside, and he knew there wasn't much he could do to help her out at the moment.

"And If she doesn't?" Tama asked, wondering what Simba was going to do if Nala were to lose her cool. Tama broke the nuzzle and looked up at Simba to see that he had a look in his eyes that told her he had no idea what he would do, but at the same time, the look also told her that if she didn't, he would find a way to make everything ok again. "Well... should I come with you... or do you think you should talk to her alone?" Tama asked, hoping that she'd be able to just stay away from Nala and pretend like this whole thing never happened, but that would never work, or happen.

"You should come with me. I'm sure she's going to want to talk to both of us" Simba said, smiling at her to reassure her that when he meant 'talk', he wasn't implying anything bad. His smile must have had some kind of effect on her, as she gave him a smile in return shortly after.

"Well... I guess... We should get going" Tama said, knowing that the others were probably wondering how the two of them were, since the last time they saw them, one slapped the other and ran away with tears in her eyes.

"Yea..." Simba said, watching as she walked past him. Simba turned around and began to follow her, praying in his mind that Nala would understand what happened here tonight.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala was waiting outside of Pride Rock for Simba and Tama to return, knowing deep down inside that the two of them would be on better terms when they got back because while Tama could be harsh at times, she was always soft with Simba. Nala was lost in her thoughts when she saw golden fur moving in the distance, and looked over to see that it was Simba and Tama coming back.

Nala got up and walked over to the edge to get a better look, and could see that Simba had a nervous and unsure look on his face, while Tama was looking down at the ground with a guilty look. Upon getting closer, Nala could see that her face was a little wet from what appeared to be where Simba licked away her tear stains, but it hadn't dried all the way, telling Nala that she had cried.

Nala watched as the two of them seemed to be walking towards her a little slower than normal, and though that this was a little odd. Nala started to get the impression that something may have happened, and that's the reason that Tama looked like she had cried and the two of them were being slower than normal.

Upon walking up to Pride Rock, Simba walked over to where Nala was and gave her a comforting nuzzle. To Nala, this was a sign that something was wrong. Simba gave romantic and passionate nuzzles all the time, as well as basic greeting nuzzles, but he rarely ever gave comforting nuzzles unless either he or someone else needed some comforting.

"Is everything ok?" Nala asked, praying that everything was, but knew deep down inside that something was wrong.

"Uh... well... Tama and I needed to talk to you about something..." Simba said, and Nala had no idea what they wanted to talk about.

"And that would be..." Nala asked.

"Well... I... We should probably go somewhere private" Simba said and watched as Nala's facial expression went from uneasy to worried.

"Well... sure" Nala said, sitting up and walking down from Pride Rock and towards the back. Simba and Tama followed her lead, and just before the was about to go behind the den, Simba saw Sarafina sneak out of the den through the corner of his eye, and smiled a bit at how she was always known for doing this. Simba never minded if Sarafina wanted to watch over him because there was nothing that she didn't know or nothing he wasn't comfortable telling her, so it wasn't like it was all that big of a deal, but he just thought that it was funny that she snuck around every so often.

The three of them made their way around to the back of Pride Rock, which was nothing more than just a hill and tall grass, with a few trees here and there. Simba watched as Nala turned around and sat down, looking at the both of them waiting for them to talk to her about whatever it was that they wanted to talk about.

"Um..." Simba started quietly, wanting to know if either Nala or Tama wanted to say something first. Simba looked over at Nala to see that she was looking back at him, waiting for him to say something, and then over at Tama, who was looking down at her paws with a sad and guilty look.

"Ok..." Simba said, trying to think of a way that he could tell Nala that he and Tama kissed, without making it seem like it was a bad thing and for her to understand that he stilled loved her and that he would do anything to stay a couple with her.

"So..." Simba said, not having found an easy way to say what he had to say, and knew that if he kept Nala waiting in suspense forever she would get a little impatient, and then it would be even worse to tell her this when she wasn't in a good mood.

"Well... there isn't an easy way to say this... but uh... Tama and I kissed" Simba said, having to use every bit of strength he had to avoid breaking eye contact with her. Simba looked into Nalas eyes to see that she had a bit of a confused face on, which made him confused. He was expecting her to get either mad, sad, hurt, depressed, or all of those, but instead, she seemed to just be a little confused.

"Um... Nala?" Simba asked shyly, wondering why she was just staring at him like that, and not trying to ask questions about if he loved her and what not like he would have expected her to do.

"Wait... So you dragged me out here and built up all this suspense just to tell me you kissed her?" Nala asked, sounding confused. Simba heard the tone of voice she was using and was surprised that she didn't seem to be the slightest bit mad, and she hadn't even questioned that they'd kissed yet.

"Well... Yea..." Simba said, still in shock by her response.

Upon hearing this, Nala let out a sigh of relief, confusing Simba and Tama even more. "Kings of the past Simba, you made me worry something was wrong" Nala said, earning a dumbfounded look from Simba, confusing her a bit as well.

"Wait... you're not... mad? Or like... I don't know... upset, worried, surprised... anything?" Simba asked, wondering how she didn't make it seem like a big deal.

"No... I mean... Well... I mean... can I ask why?" Nala asked, wanting to know the circumstances under which the kiss was held.

"Uhh" Simba said, looking over at Tama to see if she wanted to say anything, but saw that she was looking down at her paws with a humiliated look on her face, clearly wishing that she didn't need to be here. "Well... Tama was I guess a little hurt by what I said" Simba said watching Tama to see if she would try and stop him. "And well... In the process of trying to comfort her, she... I guess felt the urge to kiss me... and uh... When she did I returned it so to speak..." Simba said, watching as Tama slumped over just a little further, hating her life right now.

"Oh, so it was kinda those 'in the moment' sort of things?" Nala asked, being able to relate. Nala remembered back to when she first kissed Simba, and the only reason that she felt the urge to kiss him was because one, she developed feelings for him, and secondly the moment was just so perfect, so when she saw her chance, she took it.

"Uh... I mean I guess..." Simba said, not knowing the real reason why Tama kissed him, other than for comforting reason. Nala saw that Simba knew little to nothing about the situation, and knew that she was going to be difficult to understand. "Tama?" Simba said, wondering if she had something she wanted to say on the matter.

"I mean... I guess... yea" Tama said in a hoarse and choked voice from all her previous crying and screaming, not knowing what else to say. Simba looked back at Nala and gave her a look that told her he had no idea what he was supposed to do, and that there wasn't much that anyone could do.

"Well... uh... Cool, I guess" Nala said, not knowing what else to say. Nala looked over at Simba and Tama to see that they were both sitting there with looks on there faces that said they didn't have anything left to tell her, so she decided it best to just drop this thing for now, and give Tama some time to think about it. "Welp. I'll be in the den" Nala said a she got up, nuzzling into Simba and then kissing him so that she knew she was the last person to kiss him and then walked away.

Simba watched as Nala walked away, and looked over at Tama who was now looking up at him for the first time during the entire encounter. "So..." Simba said, not knowing if she wanted to say something to him in private.

"Goodnight" Tama said, getting up and walking away, leaving Simba alone. Simba knew that this was her way of telling him that she just wanted some alone time, and she would probably be better once morning came. Simba watched as Tama retreated towards the den, and once she was out of sight, he let out a long sigh.

"What am I going to do with her?" Simba said, knowing that Sarafina had watched the encounter and was most likely still watching him. Upon saying this, Simba heard the grass start to rustle and a few moments later, Sarafina exited in front of him.

"I'm surprised you heard me" Sarafina said with a slight chuckle, having remembered that she was very careful to not make a sound, yet Simba was still able to hear her.

"Only towards the end. I saw you follow us from the corner of my eye" Simba said, giving her a light smile. Simba watched as Sarafina returned him smile, before replacing it with a slight frown.

"Well..." Sarafina started but didn't know how to put in words what she had just heard and watched. "At least Nala seems ok" Sarafina said, not knowing where to start with this whole ordeal.

"Yea" Simba said, thankful that Nala didn't freak out or try to ban them from spending time together anymore.

"But why did you kiss her?" Sarafina asked. She knew that Tama kissed him 'in the moment', but she never heard Simba's reasoning for returning her kiss.

Sarafina watched as Simba let out a sigh, before wearing a thinking face for a few moments. "I... I almost had to. You didn't see the look in her eyes Aunti, she was broken. And I guess... well I guess that by kissing her I could fix her, and I did... well... kinda" Simba said, watching as Sarafina gave him a light smile.

"You did what you had to" Sarafina said, putting his words in a way that made more sense. Sarafina watched Simba give her a nod, before rolling over and looking up at that stars, confusing her a bit. Simba wasn't the one to just do random things like these in a conversation.

Sarafina walked over to Simba and lied down on her back next to him, looking up at the stars as he was.

"Something bothering you?" Sarafina asked, wrapping Simba up into a hug, in which he snuggled into her warm motherly embrace. Sarafina smiled when he did this because it was funny that he was now the same size as her, yet he still acted like a little cub at times.

"Something always is" Simba said, resting his head on her chest, but still looking up at the night sky. Sarafina frowned a bit when she heard this, knowing that this was true, and the hard part was that there was nothing she could do to help him. It was her job as his aunt and his mother to be able to protect him, and it hurt her in a way that she was unable to protect him from certain things.

"What's on your mind" Sarafina said, wanting to know if she could at least talk to him to make him feel just a little better.

"My mom" Simba said with a smile, and Sarafina frowned. She knew he missed her, and that's what was probably bothering him right now. Sarafina heard Simba abruptly chuckle, which confused her and broke her from her thoughts.

"She says to lighten up" Simba said, confusing her anymore.

"Sarabi?" Sarafina said, not understand who he was talking about.

"Yea. She says don't feel bad. It wasn't your fault" Simba said, confusing her even more.

"You're... talking to her?" Sarafina asked, unaware that he could be able to talk to her if he wasn't asleep.

"I'm almost always am. In my sleep, during my lessons, walking around, right now" Simba said listing the times he talks to his mother.

"Why didn't you tell me you could do that?" Sarafina asked, wondering how Simba didn't think to tell her that he could talk to Sarabi at any time of the day.

"Uh... Probably because I was under the impression that if I told anyone, they would think I'm crazy, but I forgot to tell you" Simba said. Sarafina smiled a little at how Simba said that, knowing that anyone who hadn't spoken to her the way they had would think they were crazy.

"Well, It's nice you can talk to her" Sarafina said, running her paw over Simba's mane, grooming it a little.

"I miss her. A lot" Simba said, and felt Sarafina suddenly stop grooming his mane. "I always wished that she could still be alive and that I would still be the same person and have the same relationships I do with the people now" Simba said, pushing into her a little more for some extra comfort, and felt Sarafina hug him tighter. "She once asked me something that I couldn't answer. She once asked me if I had the choice to bring her back to life, but in doing so none of this would have ever happened, would I bring her back? Or would I keep things the same?" Simba said. "I... How could anyone make that choice" Simba said, moving up and burying his face into Sarafinas neck.

Sarafina embarrassed him tighter and felt bad for him. This was one of those situations where she wanted to help and protect him, but she didn't have any way to do so, and it killed her.

"It's ok Simba. Your mom may no longer be alive, but she's still with us" Sarafina said, trying to say something that would make him feel better.

"I..." Simba started but wasn't sure how he wanted to say what he had to say. "Even though Sarabi is my real mother... to me, you've always been my mother and I love you just as much. I've always wanted to tell you that but I was scared that you couldn't see me as your son" Simba said, feeling the urge to cry a little for the first time in a very long time.

Sarafina was hurt by his words and felt the urge to cry for some reason. "I know" Sarafina said, thinking back to when she raised him when he was a younger cub. "I would like to think of you as my son. I truly would. I... Well... I did pretty much everything a mother could do with her cub with you Simba... and I know I'm not Sarabi, and I'll never be the same, but to me, you're still my little cub. My little Simba" Sarafina said with a smile on her face.

Sarafina heard Simba chuckle at little a what she said and was glad to see that she was able to produce some positive reactions. "I uh..." Simba said sounding a little unsure, making Sarafina confused. "Well... Can I ask you a personal question?" Simba asked, wondering if Sarafina would be comfortable talking about something.

"Of course" Sarafina said, wondering what was on his mind.

"I uh... well... I hear you cry at night... and uh... I wanted to know why" Simba said, having heard her sob herself to sleep before, but never knew why. Upon saying this, Sarafina tensed up a bit, aware that anyone ever heard her as she was always quiet and made sure that no one was watching her, but then again Simba's hearing abilities were greater than any other lions.

"Oh..." Sarafina said, not sure how she was going to tell him about that. She trusted him enough to know, and he probably already knew half of it, but it just wasn't something she was prepared from him to ask so it caught her completely off guard.

"Well... It's complicated" Sarafina said, not being able to label one exact cause for the reason of he crying. "But... well... I feel responsible for all of this" Sarafina said, feeling the urge to cry again, but she knew that she couldn't break down in front of Simba because she needed to remain strong for him, as he did for her. "I... I feel like I could have prevented all of this if I hadn't left you at your hideout that day. I could have foughten for you and given you a place inside Pride Rock... but I couldn't... Simba... and I'm sorry" Sarafina said, finally letting some tears pass. "I'm sorry that I gave up on you but It was my only choice. I was pregnant at the time and I had Nala to worry about and if I tried to fight against your father's wishes I could have lost my place in this pride and I just couldn't do it. I was torn between you and my other two cubs and I choose them over you and I'm sorry" Sarafina said, starting to cry harder. She was faced with a near-impossible decision, between Simba and her cubs, and she felt horrible choosing her cubs over him, but at the time every instinct in her body told her that her cubs came first no matter what, and that's what ended up happening.

Simba wasn't sure what to do in this situation. When Nala, Tama, or Kula cried to answer was obvious. Comfort them. But Sarafina was like a mother to him, so for him to comfort her instead of her comforting him just seemed... weird.

"Auntie It's ok" Simba said, laying up a little, and felt her pull back down and start crying into his shoulder. Simba was surprised that she did that, but then again she was currently being ripped apart from the inside out over having outcasted him so that her cubs could do better.

"I'm so sorry" Sarafina muttered, hating herself for what she had done, but then again what else could she have done that wouldn't have putten her cubs at risk.

"Hey, I understand. You wanted the best for both Nala and me, but when it came down to it, your motherly instincts forced you to choose Nala. I'm not mad and I'm sure my mother would understand. If there's one thing I've learned in my life its that nothing is stronger than the bond between a mother and her cubs. So I understand your decision" Simba said, wanting her to know he understood.

Simba felt Sarafina start to cradle him in a way as if he was a little cub who had a nightmare, and thought that it was a little funny that she was doing this with him at his age. Simba felt Sarafina start to gentle groom him, and knew that she was going into mother mode and that the best thing to do was let her do her thing.

"Auntie" Simba said, after countless minutes of grooming, having expected her to say something by now. Simba watched as Sarafina continued to groom his paws of all the dirt and other stuff that had collected over the day, seemingly unaware of his call. Simba decided to do something that he was... unsure of. He wanted to make a noise that cubs made when they were in distress to see if Sarafina would respond. Simba let out a quiet 'mew' which sounded weird due to his voice being lower than a cubs' and watched as Sarafina quickly looked up at him.

"Simba?" Sarafina asked, wondering what was wrong, and saw him chuckle a little.

"Sorry... I uh... wanted to get your attention" Simba said. Sarafina was confused at first, but then realized what she was doing and felt embarrassed.

"Oh sorry... I uh... Well, I don't get to do this anymore" Sarafina said with a sad tone. Since Mheetu was now really starting to become an adolescent, he no longer suckled, needed baths, slept with her, or needed anything from her, which as a mother, hurt.

"Do what?" Simba asked, not knowing what she was talking about.

"Well…" Sarafina started. "This" She said, wrapping him up and a protective manner and cuddling him a little. "I never get to be a mother anymore and I've been doing the duties of one for over a year now. As soon as Nala started to grow up, Mheetu was born so I still had a little cub to feed, bathe, and put to sleep... but now... there both grown up" Sarafina said, licking the top of Simba's head to remove a spot of dirt.

"Well… can't you just have another one" Simba said. If she enjoyed being a mother so much, then the obvious answer was to have another cub and raise it.

Sarafina chuckled a little at how Simba seemed to be a little clueless on the topic, as it wasn't just a good idea to go and have a cub. It was better to wait and prepare for something like that. "It's not that simple" Sarafina said, and watched as Simba gave her a confused look, but dropped it shortly after.

"What was I like as a cub" Simba said, wanting to hear stories about when he was younger. Sarafina was a little surprised by his request, because, for the most part, his past was so traumatic that it would have been impossible to forget, but she was figuring that he was talking about before he left the den to live on his own.

"Well... you were cute" Sarafina said, chuckling a little as she remembered cub Simba. "You were... a little confused... but for the most part you slept a lot with no other cubs to play with" Sarafina said, not remembering his early days being very exciting or full of adventure.

"Auntie..." Simba said, looking up at Sarafina to see that she was looking down at him. "What's going to happen when I become king" Simba said, wondering what, if any, changes were going to occur.

"Well..." Sarafina said, thinking back to the day Mufasa was announced king. "It will be your job to rule the kingdom, but other than that, nothing should change" Sarafina said, watching as Simba looked back up at the night sky. Sarafina started to gently pet and groom the top of his head once again, treating him as if he were her son at this point, happy that she still had at least one cub left who didn't mind her motherly affection.

"Well... We should probably get back" Simba said getting up, and Sarafina got up after him, a little disappointed that their moment had to end but it wasn't like they could stay that way forever.

"So. What's your plan for the two of them" Sarafina asked, wondering how he was going to move forward after tonight.

"New plan for what?" Simba asked, no knowing that he needed a new plan for anything.

"How will you deal with the two of them moving forward?" Sarafina asked, wanting to know if he had some sort of game plan that would keep the two of them happy.

"Well... I'm not sure. They shouldn't fight or anything" Simba said, not seeing why he would need to do things any differently with them now compared to before.

"Of course not... but speaking from experience... lionesses like their alone time from time to time, and if they don't get it... they get cranky" Sarafina said, having been that way when she was Simba's age. Sarafina watched as Simba gave her a look that told her he finally realized what she was talking about, and was unsure about it.

"Well... I mean Nala and I spend time during the day, and I spend some nights watching the stars with Kula" Simba said, certain that she already knew about that since she was curious when he started to leave at sunset with Kula. "But I mean... If I'm not with them then I guess I can spend time with Tama" Simba said and heard Sarafina chuckle a little, confusing him a bit.

"I don't think Tama's going to be the one to wait around for you" Sarafina said, knowing that when Tama wanted something, she did nearly everything in her power to get it.

"I'm sure she'll be fine. Besides, she's always sleeping on top me at night so it's not like she won't ever get to spend time with me" Simba said, not knowing what else to say.

"Why do you let her, and Kula do that" Sarafina asked, wondering why he was so relaxed when it came to the other females.

"Let them do what?" Simba asked, unsure of what she was asking.

"Sleep on you of course. I hardly find it believable that having someone lay on top of you for an entire night can be comfy and cozy" Sarafina said, knowing that it was similar to being pinned, which didn't feel any better.

"To keep her happy I guess. Same with Kula. I guess it's because they don't like sleeping with the other guys since they always mess with them while there sleeping, so I guess they come to me... and I don't mind. Neither does Nala" Simba said, not sure if she would be satisfied with that.

"Yes, well I do have to admit that the other boys have a bit of an issue when it comes to keeping their hands to themselves..." Sarafina said, but then remembered something critical. "But..." Sarafina said, getting his attention again. "What if the boys tried to take one of the girls away from you" Sarafina asked, wondering how Simba asked.

"Well I mean they're not 'my' lionesses so I guess there's nothing I can do" Simba said, wondering why kind of a question that was.

"Technically they are. You are the Prince which means one day they will be your lionesses" Sarafina said, wondering if Mufasa had told this to him yet or if this was something he had been kept in the dark about.

"But... That's terrible" Simba said. "I can't own them. There living beings. They have feelings like the rest of us. How could someone force them to do something against there will?" Simba said, thinking of it as slavery.

"You would be surprised" Sarafina said, hearing stories about other prides having terrible kings.

"Well... I couldn't... Make them like me... Or... anything along those lines" Simba said, not being able to think about taking someone's freedom away like that.

"But what if someone tried to?" Sarafina said, wondering what he would do if someone tried to do that to his friends.

"Well..." Simba said, having a few ideas, but wasn't sure if they were the right things to do. "If they tried to... I wouldn't allow it" Simba said, leaving it at that.

Sarafina smiled at him, knowing that when the time came he would make an excellent king. Sarafina let her smile drop, and then decided that she was going to test his submissives, which probably was going to result in him letting her do whatever she wanted to, and while she was at it, she was going to mess around with him to see if he would try and get her to stop.

Sarafina walked up to Simba and unsheathed her claws and glided them over his chest, up the underside of his neck making sure to go over his windpipe and major vessels, before stopping at his chin, pulling up slightly causing him to look up. Upon seeing the underside of his neck exposed, Sarafina gentle started to bite at it, doing her best to make him nervous and uncomfortable. Sarafina knew that by doing this she was causing internal conflict inside Simba over respecting her and keeping his vulnerable areas protected.

Sarafina took a step back to look over at him and saw that he was wearing a confused face, wondering what she was doing but wasn't trying to stop her. Neck, Sarafina got the idea of doing a bit of a mating ritual to see how he would react. Sarafina walked over to him, and placed the side of her face and the underside of her neck and chin right in front of his muzzle, a sign to any educated adult male that she was asking to be 'claimed', and felt Simba nervously breath over her skin, but didn't see him move at all. Sarafina started to gentle nibble on his ear, doing everything she could to try and produce some type of reaction, but it still did not affect him. Sarafina suddenly pinned Simba to the ground, resting her body on his, and watched as he gave her a completely confused and nervous look, waiting for him to pin her, but he just stayed there not making any movements at all.

After seeing that Simba wasn't going to try and stop her, Sarafina got off of him and helped him up with a chuckle. "Submissive..." Sarafina said, and watched as Simba gave her a little nod. "Simba" Sarafina said, getting serious with him. "If I was someone you did know, would you have let me do that?" Sarafina asked, wanting to know if he was only like that to the people he trusted, or like that to anyone.

"No" Simba said, returning her serious look, and watched as she smiled a bit.

"Good" Sarafina said, wearing a thinking face. "Now" Sarafina said, wanting to try something else. "Pretend I'm a Queen or a Princess that is an adult, and you have just entered my den to greet me" Sarafina said. "I want you to show me how you would greet and address me" Sarafina said, standing tall and proud like a normal Queen or Princess would usually stand.

Sarafina watched as Simba simple gave her a respectable bow, and came back up after a few moments. Simba looked over at Sarafina who had an amused smirk on her face.

"I said a Queen or a Princess Simba. Not a king" Sarafina said, telling him that he had just addressed her as a king, not a Queen or Princess. Sarafina watched as Simba gave her a confused looked, clearly oblivious that you addressed a Queen different than a King. Sarafina smiled a little and shook her front left paw which had been raised a bit this entire time, giving Simba a bit of a hint.

Simba noticed her paw but was still unsure of what he was supposed to do. Simba watched as Sarafina brought the top of her paw to Simba's muzzle, and left it in front of him as an even bigger hint. Simba was now even more confused by what she wanted, as he had no idea what he was supposed to do with her paw.

"Well?" Sarafina said, putting a little more pressure on him. Sarafina watched as Simba looked around a little panicked now, before focussing back on her paw. Sarafina knew that Simba didn't know how to be polite in the presence of other royals and that he would need to learn in preparation for something upcoming...

Sarafina watched as Simba picked her paw up with his, before bringing it the rest of the way up and placing a small kiss on the top of her paw, before gently setting her paw back on the ground. Sarafina smiled as he was finally able to get it after a while. "Now" Sarafina said again, telling Simba that he was quite done yet. "How would you address me if I was a Princess your age?" Sarafina asked, knowing that he no idea about this as well.

"What if you're a queen my age?" Simba asked, knowing that there had been queens at his age before.

"Always address a queen the same regardless of age. And if you encounter a Princess that is mature enough, it's advised you do the same" Sarafina said, before waiting for him to address her as a younger princess.

Sarafina watched as Simba gave her the look of him not knowing, and Sarafina gave him the hint of turning her left cheek towards him. Upon doing this, Sarafina watched Simba move over and place a small gentle kiss on her cheek.

"Well done" Sarafina said, glad he got the hang of it a little quicker than before. "Now" Sarafina said with a little chuckle, still having more for him. "If you're a king, that's unnecessary, but since your a Prince, it still is" Sarafina said.

"Why do I need to know all this?" Simba asked, wondering why Sarafina was teaching him about this. Simba watched as Sarafina went from wearing a smile to wearing a more serious face, and had a bad feeling about what she had to say.

"Well... Tomorrow, you and I are going to visit the Riverside pride" Sarafina said, unsure of how he would react. Sarafina watched as he gave a bit of a sad look, but other than that he didn't seem to be upset. "Is that alright with you?" Sarafina asked, wanting to know if he was on board.

"Yea..." Simba said, sounding a little sad, and watched as Sarafina gave him a look telling him to spill the rest. "It's just... I'll have to leave Nala for a few days..." Simba said, which both saddened and warmed Sarafina heart. It made her sad that he didn't want to leave her, but at the same time, it warmed her heart knowing that he loved her daughter so much that even a few days apart would be hard.

"I know" Sarafina said, not wanting to leave her two cubs behind, but knew that it was necessary.

"Why are we going there?" Simba asked, wondering why Sarafina wanted him to visit the Riverside Pride.

"I'll explain that in the morning. I need you well-rested and prepared. No early morning workouts" Sarafina said, not wanting him to be at all tired.

"But-" "Simba" Sarafina said with a chuckle, not letting him finish. "Tell Nala, Tama, and Kula tonight, and please..." Sarafina said, briefly stopping. "Let them have their fun" Sarafina said with a smile, confusing him a bit.

Simba wanted to ask what she meant by that but knew that she wasn't going to tell him, and wanted him to find out himself. With that, Simba gave Sarafina a nod, before turning around and heading back inside Pride Rock, preparing to tell Nala and the girls something that would defiantly upset them...

 **Yea normally I'd write something here, but I'm lazy rn so Y'all have a good one. Mr_Toast out!**


	20. The Riverside Pride

**Simba's Pain Chapter 20**

 **Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back Ya'll. Chapter 20… XX… It means a lot that y'all take the time to read and review this story to motivate me to write it, otherwise I'm sure that this would have remained either a short story or a one-shot. Anyways this chapter leaves off where the last chapter left, and these next few chapters should be exciting. Not much to say here, so as always, Enjoy!**

 **Discord: Mr_Toast#1697**

 **Story Discord: bit .ly /SimbasPain**

Simba slowly woke up, feeling tired and slightly worn out after having stayed up late last night dealing with Tama and talking with Sarafina. Simba had no memory of what happened after he left to go back to pride rock, and when he tried to move, he felt multiple bodies on top of him preventing him from doing so. Simba opened his eyes to see that Nala, Tama, and Kula were all pinning him down as if they were trying to prevent him from going anywhere, and then realized that he must have told him about him having to leave for a few days.

Simba shifted a little, alerting the three girls that he was awake, and they all looked down towards him with a bit of a sad look. They had accepted the fact that this was something that Simba had to do, and that they wouldn't be able to come with him, but it still hurt a little to have their best friend leave, even if it was only for a few days.

"Hey" Simba said, getting up a little, then resting his head in Kula's lap.

"Hey" They all said back, watching as he laid back down.

"So when are you leaving" Kula asked, resting her head on top of his.

"Not sure. I guess whenever Sarafina tells me it's time" Simba said, not having an answer for her. Simba watched as the three girls gave him hopeless looks, and felt a little bad that he would have no way to cheer them up.

Simba stood up and stretched out a little, walking up to Nala and giving her a good morning kiss, before walking past the girls and over to Sarafina who was looking out towards the pride lands. Simba would have expected the girls to follow him around as they normally did, but he watched as they remained where they were with sulking looks.

"Hey" Simba said and watched as Sarafina turned him around and greeting him with a smile.

"Morning" Sarafina said, standing up and gently nuzzling against him. "Big day" Sarafina said, knowing that Simba had approached her to ask about the trip to the Riverside Pride.

"Yea" Simba said, looking over at the girls to see that they were looking back at him.

"They'll be fine" Sarafina said, reassuring him that it won't be long until they get over the fact that he's leaving, and besides, he would be back in a few days.

"I know" Simba said, looking back over at her with a bit of a smile. "So… when do we leave?" Simba asked, knowing nothing about the trips besides the fact that he was leaving for a few days.

"As soon as you say your goodbyes" Sarafina said, wanting to leave as early as possible since the journey would take all day. Sarafina watched as Simba gave her a nod, before turning around and walking away.

Simba started to walk towards the girls but then noticed his dad walking out of Pride Rock to go on his morning patrol, and decided that it would be a good idea to say goodbye to him as well. "Dad" Simba said, trotting up to Mufasa and watched as he turned around and looked at him. Simba still felt a little weird saying 'dad', but knew that with time it would go away and feel right.

"Simba" Mufasa said, walking up to Simba.

"Hey" Simba said once he reached his father. "Well… I'm visiting the Riverside Pride for a few days, so I just wanted to say goodbye before I left" Simba said, hugging his father.

Mufasa was surprised that Simba thought to say goodbye to him, and was even more surprised to see that Simba was hugging him. "Be safe Simba" Mufasa said, knowing that parts of the journey could be dangerous.

"I will" Simba said, breaking the hug and turning around to say goodbye to the girls. Mufasa watched as Simba made his way towards the girls, and was touched that Simba thought to say goodbye. Mufasa still thought about all the cruel things he said and did to Simba, and was surprised that after all of that, Simba was still nice towards him. Mufasa smiled a bit, before turning around and making his way out of Pride Rock to start his morning patrol.

Simba watched as the girls stared him down as he approached, knowing well enough why he was coming back, and could all feel there stomach churn just a bit. "Well..." Simba said once he made it over to where they were. Simba watched as the girls stood up for the first time, and Kula was the first to approach him.

Kula walked up to Simba and nuzzled into his neck and face, finding it warm and soft as always, sad that he had to leave and wouldn't have anyone to watch the stars with for a few days. "Take care, Simba" Kula said, breaking the nuzzle and looking down.

Kula felt a paw lift her head so that she was looking back at Simba, before finally resting on her cheek. "I will. And when I'm back we can spend the whole night watching stars" Simba said in a quiet voice so that only she could hear. Simba watched as she smiled, before leaning forward and giving him one last nuzzle.

Simba then looked up to see that both Nala and Tama were looking at him and knew that they would want to say goodbye in private. Simba walked up to them and watched as they just stared at him, wanting him to be the first to say something.

"So" Simba said with a little chuckle. "Who wants to go first" Simba finished and watched as they exchanged looks.

"Tama" Nala said, wanting to be able to say goodbye to Simba last, knowing that she would probably take the longest. Tama stood up and walked over to Simba, before looking out of Pride Rock to tell him that she wanted her goodbye to be in private.

Simba got her message and began to walk towards the front of the den with Tama. On the way out, Simba passed Sarafina and gave her a look telling her that he would try and be quick, and in return, he saw Sarafina give him a look telling him to take his time. From there, Simba and Tama made their way to the very top of Pride Rock and looked out towards the Savanah.

"How long are you going to be gone?" Tama asked, resting her head on his shoulder after a few moments of silence. All she had heard was that he was going to be gone for a few days, but a few days could be anywhere for two or more.

"Not sure" Simba said, nuzzling into her. Simba felt Tama start to nuzzle him back, and deepened the nuzzle, and felt her do the same. Simba wished he could continue to nuzzle her for longer, but knew that he didn't have that much time, so had to cut it off.

"I'll miss you" Tama said, looking over at Simba.

"I'll miss you too" Simba said, rotating so that he was facing her. "I love you" Simba said after a few moments of silence and watched as Tama leaned up and gently started to kiss him. Simba returned the kiss, and as soon as he did, he felt her pull away and sigh a little.

"We really shouldn't be doing that" Tama said with a little chuckle, knowing how wrong it was for them to kiss.

"Who's going to stop us?" Simba said with a chuckle, nuzzling into her a bit.

"Good point" Tama said, feeling the urge to kiss him again, but felt like she shouldn't do it that often. Tama had no idea why, but whenever she kissed him it felt good, and it made her want to do it again, which worried her a bit that she was starting to get addicted to him.

"See you soon I guess" Simba said, knowing that his time with her was running out and he was trying to save as much time for Nala as possible.

"Yea" Tama said, nuzzling into him. Tama watched as Simba got up and started to walk away, feeling like something wasn't right, before realizing it. "Simba wait!" Tama said quickly and watched as he turned and looked over at her. "I love you too" Tama said, wanting to be able to say it one last time in case she never got to see her brother again.

"I was waiting for that" Simba said with a smirk, and watched as Tama chuckled a bit. Simba continued down the path and found Nala waiting just outside the den for him. Simba watched as Nala made eye contact with him, and began making her way over towards him.

"H-" Simba tried to say, but Nala cut him off with a kiss, sliding her tongue in his mouth and tasting another lions saliva, which was undoubtedly Tama's from last night, and possible a minute ago. Simba was surprised by this, but pushed it aside and returned her kiss.

"I love you" Nala said, quickly breaking the kiss before returning it once again. Simba tried to say something again but didn't have the time, and before he knew it, Nala pushed him over and pinned him.

Simba felt Nala break the kiss, and looked up to see that she had a smile on her face, which brought one to his. "I love you too" Simba quickly said, unsure if she was going to cut him off with another nuzzle.

Simba watched as Nala rolled over, before pulling him on top of her so that he was pinning her. Simba was surprised again by this but knew that she just wanted him to pin her for once. Simba moved his paw to her right ear and began to play with it, causing her to purr.

Simba chuckled a little when he heard Nala purr, finding it funny that she enjoyed it so much, but didn't judge her. "I'll miss you" Simba said, rolling off her and hugging her.

"I'll miss you too" Nala said, licking his muzzle. Nala felt Simba start to place licks on her neck, and looked up giving him full access to her neck, enjoying the feeling of his warm tongue giving that area attention.

"Well... I guess I gotta go" Simba said, seeing Sarafina make her way out of the den. Simba watched as Nala gave him a bit of a sad look, but it faded away when she leaned up to kiss him. Once the kiss broke, Simba got up and helped Nala up, feeling her kissing him on the way up.

"Well... Goodbye, I guess" Nala said, not wanting him to leave but knew that he had to, for whatever reason.

"Not goodbye, but see you later" Simba said, repeating his all-time famous departing words. Simba watched as Nala gave him a smile and a kiss, before taking a step back, telling him he was free to go.

Simba turned around and walked over to Sarafina and saw that Ariya was now standing neck to her, making him wonder if she was coming as well.

"You ready?" Sarafina said, wondering if he said goodbye to everyone he wanted to.

"Yup" Simba said.

"Well... Let's go" Sarafina said, walking down from Pride Rock. Simba followed her down and noticed that Ariya was also following them, pretty much confirming that she was coming with them.

"I'm so excited" Ariya said, walking up to Simba and nuzzling into him.

"Huh... oh why..." Simba asked. Seeing as it was her home, it seemed like she would already know everything about it, but then again she could be excited to see her friends and family again.

"Well, I'll get to see my family again. And I can show you around the place" Ariya said, sounding excited.

"Nice" Simba said, not knowing what else to say. Ariya was a little disappointed with his response, getting the idea that he didn't care about that so just said 'nice' to try and end the conversation here.

"Are... you excited?" Ariya said, not wanting to jump to the conclusion that he didn't care just yet.

"Well... I've never been and I don't know anything about the place so I guess... but then again I have no idea why I'm going so..." Simba said, not having a good answer.

"We're going to get my sister so she can live with us" Ariya said, and watched as Simba gave her a curious look. "Her name is Mapenzi. She's Mheetu's age" Ariya said, knowing that Simba didn't know anything about her.

"So we're just going to collect her and come back?" Simba asked.

"We will be staying the night so you can meet King Asante and Queen Alana" Sarafina chimed in, having been listening in on their conversation.

"Oh" Simba said, not realizing that they were staying for more than a day.

"Queen Alana requested that our best warrior escort her daughters from the Riverside pride to the pride lands. She would also like to meet him and evaluate him personally" Sarafina said, finally telling Simba why they were leaving.

"Oh... So I'm going to be stuck with Queen Alana for a day?" Simba asked, not seeing how that could be much fun.

"Being in the presence of the Queen is a gift Simba" Sarafina chuckled, finding it amusing that he didn't understand that.

"Ah, so I guess I need to work on my manners?" Simba said, wondering if he needed to act a certain way in front of the queen.

"Your manners are fine, just remember how to greet her for when we arrive" Sarafina said, knowing that first impressions were important.

"Oh, you don't have to do that whole kissing thing if you don't want to" Ariya said, knowing that it wasn't all that important, or at least so she thought.

"It's ok" Simba said, not wanting to take a chance to mess things up.

"Well... Just don't do it every time" Ariya said with an unamused tone of voice, catching Simba by surprise.

"Why?" Simba asked, wondering why he didn't have to do it every time.

"Because it gets old fast. Especially at my age" Ariya said and saw that Simba still looked confused. "It's annoying to have a bunch of boys your age kiss you on the cheek every chance they get. And the only reason they do it is just that they want to kiss you" Ariya said, speaking from experiences.

"Oh..." Simba said, not thinking about it like that.

"But you'll have fun. Don't worry" Ariya said smiling. Ariya looked over at Simba to see that he was looking around like he was confused and lost, and found it to be both cute and adorable.

"You're cute when you do that" Ariya said, and watched as Simba gave her a cute look, which was just his confused look.

"Uhh... Ok" Simba said with a nervous chuckle, before stopping quickly having seen that Sarafina stopped. Simba hadn't realized it, but they were already at the border of the outlands.

"As always, stay together, keep your eyes peeled, and start alert" Sarafina said, before stepping into the outlands.

Simba noticed that Ariya went from being happy and cheery to looking scared and nervous. Simba watched as she was looking around like she knew something was watching her, but she couldn't tell where it was.

"You ok?" Simba said. Simba watched as Ariya pressed herself against him for security while she walked, and took a deep breath.

"Yea..." Ariya said, before looking into Simba's eyes. "If something happens... will you protect me?" Ariya said, knowing that she probably wouldn't be able to fight for herself. As far as lions went she was average size, but was a poor fighter and very shy in certain conditions, so it would only take a hyena or two to bring her down.

"To the end" Simba said, reassuring her that so long as he was alive, she would be safe. Simba felt Ariya nuzzle into him before continuing to stay pressed up against him which made Simba wonder why she was so scared of the outlands.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Sarafina, Simba, and Ariya had been walking for countless hours throughout the outlands, which seemed to go on and on forever, with no end in sight.

"And that's how my friends almost blocked our entire water supply" Ariya said, telling Simba about how her friend once knocked over a tree blocking a river from supplying their waterhole. Ariya looked over to see that Simba wasn't listening to her, and had a look that read trouble.

"Is everything alright?" Ariya asked, wondering why Simba looked so serious. Upon hearing this, Sarafina turned around and looked over at Simba to see that he was intently listening for something, or someone, and got the idea that something was wrong.

"Something's following us..." Simba said, being able to hear soft footsteps around them. Upon saying this, Simba felt Ariya lean into him, feeling more protected when she was against him.

"They turned around..." Simba said, having heard them turnaround and their footsteps fade. "They're gone..." Simba said, looking over at Sarafina who was giving him a serious look.

"Very well" Sarafina said, before turning around and continuing to walk. Sarafina knew that they were getting close to the riverside pride, and it wouldn't be long before they could all rest after walking all day in the hot sun.

After a while of walking, Simba noticed that the plants around him were starting to be green, and more lively, an indication that there was water somewhere and they were exciting the outlands. After walking past a large rock, Simba looked to his right to see grasslands that went on for as far as he could see, and a major river that cut right through it. Simba then saw that there was a large rock by the river, most likely where the Riverside pride resided.

"We're here!" Ariya said, taking in the sight of her home from a distance.

"Wow" Simba said, surprised to see that it was green, unlike the pride lands which was more of a Savannah.

"Welcome Simba, to the Riverside Pride" Sarafina said with a smile, watching as Simba took in its beauty for the first time.

Sarafina, Simba, and Ariya made their way towards the river, with Simba looking around seeing all kinds of different sights that he had never seen before. Simba was shocked that such a place like this existed. All his life the only thing he knew was the pride lands, so this was something he had never thought existed.

Upon getting closer, Simba noticed several lionesses that were watching their advance, most likely wondering what they were doing this close to the den, unable to tell who they were.

"Relax" Sarafina said, seeing as Simba was eyeing the lionesses back. Sarafina watched as Simba looked over at her and gave her a somewhat on edge look. "Remember. They're friends of ours" Sarafina said, not wanting Simba to think that this was enemy territory and start treating them poorly.

Simba looked back towards where the lionesses where, and saw that they had started to approach them since they were still making their way towards the den. Simba was studying the lionesses carefully, trying to see if he could tell anything about them by the way they looked and saw Sarafina slow to a stop.

"What are we doing?" Simba asked, wondering why they had stopped walking.

"Waiting. Leave the talking to me" Sarafina said in a quiet voice so the lionesses wouldn't hear them.

"Ariya. Sarafina" The one in the middle said with a warm smile once she was in talking distance.

"Avana!" Ariya said, walking up and nuzzling the lioness.

"My, how you've grown" Avana said, nuzzling back Ariya. Avana looked up and gave Sarafina a warm smile, in which Sarafina returned, before looking over at Simba with a stern look, just shy of a glare.

"You must Simba" Avana said, walking up to Simba surprised to see that he was the same size as her since Sarafina's message said that he was only one and a quarter.

"Yes ma'am" Simba said returning her eye contact, not wanting to show weakness in his first impression since he was supposed to be an escort. Simba saw that Avana was studying him from head to toe, and knew that she was probably both surprised and impressed by his size and build for such a young age.

"The queen will see you now" Avana said in a stoic voice. "Lulu. Take our guest to the queen" Avana said, and a slender cream lioness approached Simba and nodded her head in the direction of the den.

Simba started to follow Lulu towards the den, leaving the others behind.

"Can I go with him?" Ariya said with a pleaded look. Avana looked down at Ariya and let a smile come across her face.

"Of course dear" Avana said with a sweet-sounding voice. Avana watched as Ariya smiled at her and ran off towards Lulu and Simba. "She's such a sweet a girl" Avana said, having missed Ariya.

"She is" Sarafina said, thinking about how Ariya reminded her of Nala in away.

"I thought you said he was one and a quarter" Avana said, observing that Simba looked much older than she said.

"He's... different than most males..." Sarafina said, not sure how to sum up his life. Sarafina looked over to see that Avana was giving her an intrigued look, telling her that she wanted to know more. "He was a victim of bullying... but now... now he's unstoppable" Sarafina said with a smile, knowing what Simba was capable of doing. Sarafina watched in the distance as Lulu, Simba, and Ariya walked in the royal den, hoping that Queen Alana would accept him.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Upon entering the den, Simba saw what had to be Queen Alana at the center, looking towards them, surrounded by a group of very young cubs that were all playing with each other. Simba noticed that Ariya was almost a reflection of her mother, having the same eyes, fur color, and anatomy with the only difference being that Alana had different facial features.

"Mom!" Ariya said, pushing past Simba and running up towards her mother nuzzling her with excitement.

"Ariya! You've grown so much. I knew you would always turn out to be so beautiful and strong" Alana said, nuzzling her daughter.

"Aww... who are these?" Ariya said, looking down at the four young cubs who were surrounding them.

"These are the prides new litter of cubs" Alana said, looking down to see four cubs, instead of five. Alana quickly glanced around to find the missing cub and spotted him climbing up Simba. Alana quickly stood up and started to make her way over towards Simba, fearing that at his young age he might hurt the cub, but stopped once she saw that he let the cub climb all over him and didn't do anything to stop him.

"You must be Simba..." Alana said, studying the young strong male that stood before her. Upon walking up to Simba, Alana noticed that Simba was just a hair taller than her but much stronger. Alana gentle picked the young cub up and place him down so he could return to the others.

"Yes, your majesty" Simba said, bowing in respect, having expected Sarafina to be here to help guide him through this.

"I have heard a great many things about you..." Alana said, starting to circle Simba, looking him over and seeing the numerous scars he had collected in his relatively short life, as well as seeing muscles that she hadn't noticed on other lions and vascularity that would be unbelievable if someone didn't see it in person. Alana noticed that Simba was nervous, but did a good job in letting it not show.

Simba stood still, following Alana with his eyes as she circled him, unsure of how he should respond to that.

"Relax dear" Alana said. "No need to be nervous" She added, stepping away from Simba and back in front of him.

"Right" Simba said, giving her a nod, still unsure of what he should say or do. "So... I've been told that I'm here to escort your daughters back to the pride lands... Is that right?" Simba said, wanting to say something so he didn't come across as even more socially awkward than he already was.

"That is correct, but first you must prove yourself worthy" Alana said, giving Simba a serious look.

"How?" Simba asked, wondering if he was going to have to do something similar to the trials he did to prove himself worthy of being king.

"Tests of course. But I would expect that you would be tired from the long journey, so I'll let you rest and we can start tomorrow" Alana said, wanting to see how he would react.

"I mean... I'm not tired from the trip, so if you want, we can start today" Simba said, trying to make it sound as respectful as possible. Simba saw that Alana wore a bit of a smirk when he said this which confused him.

"Very well... Follow me" Alana said, smirking at how he insisting on taking one of the tests the same day that he traveled from the pride lands. "Lulu, watch the little ones" Alana said as she passed Lulu on the way out.

Simba watched as Lulu and Ariya made their way over towards the cubs, starting to play with them and entertain them, and looked over at Alana to see that she nodded her head outside, telling him to follow her. Simba began to follow Alana out of the cave, and for the first time noticed that he hadn't seen a single male lion so far.

Upon exiting the cave, Simba saw Sarafina and Avana walking up towards them, meeting them just outside the cave.

"Sister" Avana said, which confused Simba a bit. He didn't know that they were sister, but when he compared their names, Alana and Avana sounded very similar so it made sense.

"Avana" Alana said, nodding her head. "Sarafina" Alana said giving Sarafina a warm smile, in which Sarafina returned.

"It's good to see you again" Sarafina said and looked over at Simba to see that he was looking around at the three of them unsure of what to do. "I take it you've met Simba" Sarafina said, motioning towards Simba.

"Yes" Alana said, looking over at Simba. "We are on our way to take the first test" Alana said, looking back over to see that Sarafina had a much more serious face.

"Excellent" Sarafina said in a calm voice but gave Alana a look that told her she wanted to talk to her in private.

"Avana, Will you please escort Simba to the first test" Alana said, reading Sarafinas queue.

"Of course" Avana said, looking over at Simba and motioning for him to follow, leaving Sarafina and Alana alone.

Sarafina walked up to Alana so that they were inches apart and looked around to see if anyone was near them. "I understand you're queen and I respect both your positions and decided to make him take tests, but I don't want him running any suicide missions" Sarafina said in a quiet voice.

"I understand. What I have planned for him shouldn't be hard for him if he proves to live up to what I've heard about him" Alana said, giving Sarafina a serious look, telling her it was ok. Alana watched as Sarafina nodded, and the two of them left it at that and went to catch up with the two.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was following Avana through the grasslands with an uncomfortable silence in the air. Every so often Simba would catch Avana giving him some kind of scowl as if he did something to upset her.

"So... Uh... The grass is a lot greener here than back in the pride lands" Simba said, wanting to say something, but didn't know what to talk about so resorted to saying something random like that.

"Yup" Avana said, paying little attention to him. Simba wanted to try and say something else but knew that she was uninterested in talking to him, and didn't want to annoy her.

"Simba" Sarafina said as she and Alana walked up to them, finally having been able to catch up.

"Hey" Simba said, glad that there was someone who would listen to him now. Sarafina and Alana caught up to the two of them, and the four of them now all started to walk towards the first test in silence.

Sarafina was taking in the beauty that the area had to offer and looking at a tall tree that they were approaching when she looked over at Simba to see that he was doing what he always did when he heard something off. He was currently suspiciously looking around trying to find the source of an incoming sound.

"What is it?" Sarafina said in a bit of a worried and concerned voice, alerting Alana and Avana that something was wrong. Alana and Avana looked over to see that Simba was currently looking around, while also turning his head to better hear, telling them that he was hearing something that they weren't.

"Somethings following us..." Simba said, scanning the grass line. Simba was scanning the grass line when his head all of a sudden stopped and focused in on an area of grass. "There they are" Simba said, loud enough so that whoever was following them could also hear him.

"There's nothing there" Avana said, not hearing or seeing anything. Just as she said that three young adult males with dark fur and pitch-black manes stepped out of the bush where Simba was looking.

"Looks like kiddo here has some good hearing" The one in the middle said. The one in the middle walked up to Simba and stopped just in front of him, while Avana and Sarafina stood off to the side protecting the queen.

"Can I help you?" Simba said sounding calm, which surprised Alana and Avana while angering the lion.

"You can start by moving. And if you don't, I'm going to pound you into a ball and send you balling back to mommy" The one said, pushing Simba in the chest, but didn't cause him to flinch or move as he had expected.

"That's not gonna happen" Simba said with a slight chuckle, and watched as the lion worse a face of pure rage, clearly on the breakpoint.

"Why's that?" The lion said, getting just a little closer to try and make him uncomfortable.

"Because one, I don't listen to tough guys, and two, my mothers dead" Simba said and watched as the lion brought his paw up to strike him in the face hoping to catch him off guard, but Simba caught his paw and nailed him across the face, knocking out teeth and breaking his nose.

Everyone heard the sounds of teeth being knocked out and the lions painfully scream and took a step back having been startled. The other two lions were taken back by this, surprised that Simba had what it took to nail there leader like that. "You're lucky kid, but when mommy isn't here to protect you, we'll be back" One of them said, dragging the lion in the middle away who was clutching his face in pain.

Simba watched as they dragged him back into the tall grass and disappeared in it, hopefully for the last time. Simba continued to breathe heavily and fix his sight on where the attacks left when he felt something brush into the side of him, breaking him from his trance. Simba looked over and saw that Sarafina was now next to him with a concerned look on her face, probably wondering if he was ok.

"I'm ok" Simba said in a soft voice and watched as Sarafina smiled a bit. Simba looked past her and saw that Alana and Avana were both giving him looks of complete disbelief, and Simba began to felt uneasy as he didn't know those lions or why they attacked them. "Who were they?" Simba asked, wondering if they were part of the test, but he wasn't supposed to have attacked them.

"Exiles. Murders. Rapists" Alana said, surprised that Simba was able to hold his own at such a young age.

"Will they be back?" Simba asked.

"Eventually. But I'd say they learned their lesson for now" Alana said. "Now, the test" Alana said, not worrying about the lions since they wouldn't be back any time soon. Alana watched as Simba gave her a bit of a nod, and she turned around and looked up at a tall tree. "This Baobab tree is one of the oldest trees you'll find out here. Your task is to climb it" Alana said, knowing that it would be easy for him.

Simba was relieved to hear this test was as simple as climbing a tree. Giving her a nod, he walked up to the tree and began to climb it. Simba could feel that the tree was old and it was easy to sink his claws into the wood inside. Simba then realized that the test was to climb a tree without hanging onto any branches because if he did, they would break. Simba continued his way up the tree until he reached the top in a matter of seconds.

"Amazing..." Alana said and looked over to see that Sarafina was wearing a proud smile.

"He sure is" Sarafina said, looking back up at Simba who was looking down at them.

Upon seeing them make eye contact with him, Simba began to slowly make his way down the tree, before gracefully landing in front of them.

"Very impressive" Alana said, noticing that he didn't even look tired. Alana watched as he gave her an appreciative nod and started to be able to tell that he seemed to avoid a conversation if he could. "Well, I think you've had enough adventure today. Please feel welcome to stay at our den tonight if you wish" Alana said, before turning around and walking away with Avana in tow.

Simba looked over at Sarafina wearing a bit of an annoyed look, almost appearing to be slightly mad, which surprised her. "Exiles? Murderers? Rapists?" Simba said, sounding a little offended. "You knew" Simba said and watched as Sarafina wore a bit of guilty expression. "Why didn't you tell me?" Simba asked, understanding why the lionesses were acting too weird around him, and the reason why he hadn't seen a single male since he arrived. They were all exiled and clearly they weren't happy about it, and the lionesses clearly didn't have any soft spots left for males.

"I didn't know it had gotten this bad" Sarafina said truthfully, not having seen it fit to tell him and cause him to worry about another thing.

"Well..." Simba said, before stopping. "I'm not mad but it would have been nice to know why people won't even talk to me and scold at me every time I smile at them" Simba said, clearly sounding hurt. Sarafina heard the way he sounded and immediately entered mother mode, walking up to him and wrapping him up in a hug.

"It's going to be ok Simba. They may not trust males but they'll see that you're nothing like them" Sarafina said, reassuring him that it would be ok.

"I know" Simba said, breaking the hug. "So... what now?" Simba asked. All he knew what that he was going to escort Mapenzi back, which he hadn't even met yet, but besides that, he had no idea what he as going to do while he stayed.

"For now I'd say rest up. I don't think Queen Alana will go easy on you since the stakes could be her two daughters lives" Sarafina said, and a bit of a conflicted look from Simba.

"Where?" Simba asked, knowing Queen Alana said that he was welcomed in the den, but seeing as males didn't have a good reputation here Simba didn't want to stir up any trouble.

"In the den of course" Sarafina said, knowing that Simba didn't want to stay in the den, but Queen Alana knew that and said he was welcomed to test his confidence. If he had to confidence to sleep in a cave with a bunch of lions who didn't trust him it showed that he wasn't going to back down or be afraid to take a risk if needed.

"Think anyone's going to be upset?" Simba asked, wondering if they were going to be eyeing him all night as if the were expecting him to commit some sort of crime just for being a male.

"Seeing as the Queen is the one hosting you, I don't think they'll have a problem" Sarafina said, knowing that if the Queen invited him to stay then there wasn't anything anyone could do to stop him. "Well, I'm off to bed now. Just don't stay out too late" Sarafina said with a smile.

Simba gave Sarafina a smile and a nod and watched as she turned around and walked towards the den. Simba started to walk in a random direction himself and started to explore the grasslands. He knew just about every place in the pride lands since he spent almost his entire youth walking it, but knew nearly nothing of this place which made him feel a little lost.

Simba was walking when he heard that someone was following him in the tall grass behind him, and started to try and figure out who it was. It wasn't Sarafina since she was never careless enough to be heard, and he wasn't sure if it could be either Alanna or Avanna seeing what he was up to. Then Simba remembered back to the lions that told him they would be back when mommy wasn't around to protect him, probably thinking that Sarafina was his mother despite what he said, and concluded that it could also be them.

"Can I help you?" Simba said in the direction of the person who was following him. Simba heard them quickly stop, before starting to move again but this time with no intent to hide their presence.

"That's some nice hearing you got buddy" One of the same two dark lions that he encountered before. Since there was only two this time, Simba was pretty sure that the other one was having to take a bit of a break due to his face and thought that it was amusing that they were back for more.

"Thanks" Simba said with a smile and watched as the two lions gave him death glares.

"Now. Let's get one thing straight kid. You're nothing out here. We own these lands and were not afraid to kill ya!" He said, taking a few steps forward.

"Really?" Simba asked surprised. "It's a little strange that despite you owning these lands a bunch of lionesses are taking residence at a den that happens to be located near that big river" Simba said, knowing that his taunting would make him mad.

Instead of hearing a response at first, Simba was given a vicious growl. "I'd watch it if I were you" He said with another growl in his voice.

"Look, man. I'm sorry for embarrassing your leader like that in front of a group of ladies. I can understand how that would hurt his ego. But the thing I'm wondering is why you're out here now trying to make trouble with me when I never did anything to you?" Simba said, and waited for the lion to snap and attack him.

Just as Simba had expected, he heard the lion growl and lunged at Simba, but Simba simply stepped to the side causing him to land face-first in the dirt and skid a few yards. Simba quickly turned around and caught the second lion that he knew would charge him and spun out of his way, sending the second lion crashing into the first.

"Come on guys. Is this necessary?" Simba asked, not wanting to fight them over such a stupid thing, but would if he had to.

"You're gonna be picking up your teeth with broken fingers if you don't shut it bud" The lion said.

"Similar to how your leader did before?" Simba said with a smirk, remembering that he knocked their leader's teeth out.

Simba watched as they both charged him, and dodged the first lion as he did before, but as he turned around to spin out of the way for the second lion, he felt him dig his claws into his arms, using the momentum from the spin to cut deep into Simbas arm in a ripping manner.

Simba grunted in pain and looked down to see that from his elbow to his paw, there were four long claws marks on his arm, and lost any joking manner that he had before.

"Aww. Are you bleeding?" The lion said in a taunting manner, before beginning to charge at him.

"I was having fun at first. But now I'm pissed!" Simba said, turning to face them as they were charging towards him with the only intent to end this fight right here and right now using whatever methods he had to.

Instead of stepping to the side, Simba slammed his paw into the firsts lions trachea, crushing it in the process. Simba pushed him to the side and faced the second lion who was swinging his paw over to him but couldn't move out of the paw in time and felt him claw his forehead.

Simba took a few steps back and wiped his paw over his forehead and found that it was bleeding. Simba looked up to see that he was trying the same move again, and Simba caught his arm and snapped it, breaking the three major bones in his arm all at once, before slamming his paw into the side of his face, knocking him out.

Simba took a few steps back and looked at what remained of the lions. The first was on the ground having already passed out from the lack of oxygen and would soon die. The second was laying catatonic on the ground with a mangled arm and bleeding forehead.

Simba looked down at his arm to see that several of his veins had been cut open and he would need help to stop the bleeding, but he wasn't sure if there was anyone like Rafiki in the Riverside pride that could help him. Simba turned around and started powerwalking to the den, still mad about the injuries he had received. He knew that he could have prevented them, but acted as if they were merely hyenas and because of that, he paid for it.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Sarafina walking into the royal den to see that Alana, Avana, Ariya, and Mapenzi were all inside and getting ready to sleep. Sarafina saw that they looked up at her and smiled, welcoming her into the den. Sarafina continued into the den, stealing once last glance at the grasslands before stopping suddenly when she saw a golden figure with a red mane making its way towards the den with haste.

Sarafina knew that it was Simba, but she was surprised to see that he had a somewhat angry look on his face, and was powerwalking towards the den. Upon Simba getting closer, Sarafina could see that large gashes in his arm and the one on his head and knew that something was wrong. "Simba..." Sarafina said in a worried tone, alerting everyone inside that something was wrong and telling them something was very wrong when she frantically ran out of the cave in a distressed manner.

Alana ran towards the entrance of the cave and saw that Simba was walking towards her with multiple wounds that were a clear sign of him being attacked. Alana quickly followed after Sarafina knowing that something was wrong.

"Simba, what happened?" Sarafina said upon reaching Simba and began to examine him herself.

"Those lions from earlier came after me as soon as you left" Simba said with an obvious amount of discomfort in his voice.

"Where are they now?" Alana said, wondering if they were going to try and follow him back to the den.

"Ones dead and the other can't walk" Simba said, walking past her as Sarafina led him into the den, leaving her shocked. From what she had heard and seen about Simba, she never thought that he'd be the type of person to just kill someone and not even sound like he cared.

"What do you mean he's dead?" Alana said, wondering how the lion met his fate.

"I crushed his windpipe" Simba replied as Sarafina sat him down and began to tend to his forearm which was losing a lot of blood.

Alana made her way over to help clean out the wound on his forehead when she saw that he had several claw marks on his side, chest, and neck, which didn't look to be major but were also causing him to lose blood.

"Ariya, help us" Alana commanded her daughter and watched as Ariya quickly made her way over towards them and began to clean the wounds on Simbas forehead.

After a while, Sarafina, Alana, and Ariya had managed to get all of the lacerations to stop bleeding and cleaned them out well. Alana looked over to see that Simba was calmly laying down with a tired look on his face, but didn't appear to be in any discomfort despite his injuries.

"Are you going to be ok?" Alana said, standing up and walking over towards the front of Simba.

"Yes. Thank you, your majesty" Simba said, nodding his head in respect.

"Please Simba. My name is Alana and now isn't the time for formal titles" Alana said with a chuckle, surprised that he was still being very formal and respectful in his current condition. Alana then noticed something else that surprised her. Sarafina was currently embarrassing Simba like he was a young cub and her daughter Ariya was grooming his face, mane, and neck without him resisting either in the slightest.

"Ariya" Alana whispered at her daughter, trying to get her to leave Simba alone at it wasn't all that polite to groom someone in public. Alana watched as Ariya looked up at her and she could see tear stains in her daughter's eye and decided to just let her be as she was worried for her friend. "Nevermind" Alana said, giving Ariya a reassuring smile.

"Mommy?" Alana heard Mapenzi whisper and turned around to see her youngest daughter standing behind her with a nervous look on her face. Alana saw Mapenzi turned around and start walking towards an area that would have some more privacy and began to follow her daughter.

"Why are helping the exiles?" Mapenzi asked, nervously looking over at Simba and wondering if he was going to try and attacked her sister.

"He's not one of them. He protected us from them today, and he's going to protect you from them when you go to the pride lands" Alana said trying to get her to realize that Simba was a good person.

"I don't want to go to the pride lands" Mapenzi said with tears in her eyes.

"Sweetheart" Alana said nuzzling Mapenzi. "It's not safe for you here. The pride lands are much safer and you'll be with your sister" Alana said trying to get Mapenzi to understand why she was going to be going to the pride lands.

"But I don't want to leave you" Mapenzi said, burying herself into her mother. Alana sighed when she heard this, knowing that little to nothing could be done. Ariya was much better when it came to leaving and never relied on her as much as Mapenzi did.

"I know, but you'll make friends over there and you'll have many new aunts over there" Alana said, trying to make the best out of it.

"I don't want aunts mommy, I want you. Please come with us" Mapenzi said with tears in her eyes, breaking Mapenzi's heart. Alana's heart broke when she heard this, and knew that she couldn't come with her. She was a queen and she had to do her part for her pride.

"I can't sweetie. I'm queen and my place is here" Alana said and watched as Mapenzi shed a tear.

"But ever since the collapse we haven't needed a queen. Auntie Avanna can take your place. Please, mommy, you have to come with us. Were your daughters. This is what daddy would have wanted" Mapezi said, making a good point.

Alana started to cry, and did everything in her power to stop, and was successful in being able to do so. "Sweetie..." Alana said, but couldn't find anything to say. "I..." Alana said but just couldn't put her thoughts into words. "I'll think about it" Alana said, knowing that Mapenzi was right. It was too dangerous to have her daughter stay, but at the same time she was their mother and she belonged with them.

"Excuse me?" Alana heard and turned around to see that Simba was behind her. "Could I talk to her?" Simba said, wondering if he could help Mapenzi out with some of the family issues.

"Of course" Alana said and watched as Mapenzi slowly got up and watched towards the mouth of the cave with Simba. Alana followed them and sat down next to Simba, wondering what he wanted to say to her daughter.

"Um..." Simba said, wondering what he wanted to say to her. "Well... I'm Simba" Simba started, looking down at Mapenzi.

"Mapenzi" Mapenzi said, looking up at Simba.

"Thought so" Simba said with a smile. "I just wanted to tell you something about me that I thought would help you after hearing what you said to your mother" Simba started, looking up at the stars. "I never met my mother. She died giving birth to me, and... I blamed myself" Simba said, looking down at his paws. "It hurt knowing that I would never meet her. Never hear her voice. Or see her face" Simba said, having to stop and swallow a lump in his throat.

"I couldn't tell you how much I wanted to see her face. Hear her voice. Feel her warmth. Have her sing me to bed or bath me. I took that away from her" Simba said, looking over at Mapenzi to see she had a shocked look on her face.

"So I understand you want to stay with your mother. And I understand your mother wanting you to go. But in the end, I just hope you realize that regardless of what happens in the world we live in, your mother will only ever want what's best for you. Something I'm sure my mother wants for me" Simba said, brushing the scar on his left paw with his right paw.

"So... don't feel like she's trying to get rid of you. Know that she's being torn apart by this. She's an adult so she going to try to act strong, but she's crying on the inside. She wants you to stay, but she knows that if you do, she's putting you in danger. Every instinct is telling her to protect you, but the only way for her to protect you is to send you away" Simba said and watched as Mapenzi gave him a confused look.

"So... I don't know... I guess just know that your mother is doing this because she loves you, and you're not the only one who is going to be losing someone dearest to you" Simba said, standing up and turning around, leaving Mapenzi and Alana alone.

Mapenzi looked up at her mother to see that she was looking down at her paws with tears running down her face. "Mommy?" Mapenzi said, having never seen her mother cry before.

"Yes Mapenzi?" Alana said looking over at daughter with tears in her eyes.

"Is what he said true?" Mapenzi asked, still too young to understand what he had explained.

"Yes, sweetheart" Alana said, wiping away some tears and licking the top of Mapenzi's head.

"Please come with us, mommy. You have to" Mapenzi said, putting more pressure on Alana.

"As I said, I'll think about it. Why don't you get some sleep" Alana said, sending Mapenzi off to bed. Once Mapenzi was gone, Alana started to silently cry to herself with her back towards everyone so they wouldn't see her. Alana could hear that someone was approaching, but this time was unable to stop the river of tears from falling.

"Alana?" Sarafina said, knowing what was wrong and was wondering if she could help. Sarafina watched as Alana looked over at her with a look that invited her to sit down next to her, and Sarafina did just that.

"I know how you feel" Sarafina said, looking over at Alana. "When Simba was a young cub, his father forced him to leave pride rock. His father was lost then but is the same loving person he was before all of that and has a much better relationship with his father, but back to what I was saying. I wanted so badly to just crush his head and take Simba in, but I knew I couldn't. I couldn't do anything. Nala was only four months old at the time and I had just found out that I was pregnant with Mheetu, and I knew that I couldn't risk my position in the pride and have to raise my cubs it the outlands. I just couldn't do it. But the same thing with Simba. I couldn't leave him alone all day, but I had to, and it killed me. Having to choose my cubs over a cub I always saw as my own killed me" Sarafina said, watching as Alana gave her a supportive smile.

"He's amazing" Alana said, looking over at Simba who was currently being groomed by Ariya. "And I want to go with them" Alana said becoming serious. "I know my sister will take over as leader of what's left of this pride... but I can't guarantee that Mufasa will take us in" Alana said, fearing that even if she went Mufasa would send her back.

"Indeed. And when the time is right your eldest son can take his rightful place as king, but I can't guarantee that Mufasa will accept you, but Simba will, and if Simba says you can stay, then you can stay" Sarafina said, smiling at her.

"I still need to think..." Alana said.

"Of course, but when you're ready, talk to him" Sarafina said, before turning around and walking away. Alana released a large sigh, before turning around and walking towards the back of the cave, longing for a good nights sleep, wondering what difficulties tomorrow will bring...

 **I get that I'm supposed to writing stuff here as some sort of conclusion, but like before I'm just lazy so until next time, Y'all have a good one. Mr_Toast out!**


	21. Hostage Situation

**Simba's Pain Chapter 21**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Welcome back y'all. As always would just like to thank you guys for reading and those of you who wrote a comment. Also if you wanna join us on discord I'm always accepting new members to be able to brag about how many people I got in my server, so as always, Enjoy!**

 **Discord: Mr_Toast#1679**

 **Story Discord: bit .ly /SimbasPain**

Alana woke up with a slow start as the first few rays of the sun shined down into the cave. Alana slowly began to stand up and stretch out, looking around the den to see who else was awake. Alana saw that everyone was present and still asleep, except Simba, which made her wonder what he was doing since many things about him remained a mystery to her.

Alana made her way to the front of the cave and saw that Simba was down by the river using the water to wash himself off, which seemed strange to her since he was undoubtedly clean from all the grooming he received last night. Alana slowly made her way over to Simba, trying to figure out what he was doing since the river wasn't exactly the safest place to be since you could be seen from a distance.

"Mind if I join you?" Alana said once she reached Simba.

"Oh... not at all your majesty" Simba said, bowing down in respect. Alana chuckled a little at how formal and grateful Simba appeared to be just from her presence, and wondered why he always greeted her with respect even though it wasn't necessary.

"So what are you doing" Alana said, sitting down next to him and finally being able to see that he was washing the blood from the night before off his legs.

"Just washing my fur" Simba said, standing up and shaking his legs dry. Alana looked him over to see all the wounds he had from last night and was surprised that he was able to move around without much difficulty after only several hours.

"I see" Alana said, studying the scar on his chest wondering how he came to sport one so large.

"Those males from yesterday..." Simba started, not sure how she would react to him bringing that up. "What did they want from you" Simba asked, wondering why they were looking for a fight.

"Three males just happen to stumble across three females. What do you think?" Alana said with a slight chuckle wondering how Simba wasn't able to connect the dots.

"Oh... they wanted to like..." "Mate" Simba was saying, before dying down and Alana finishing his sentence. "Yea... but why?" Simba asked, wondering why they were lurking around an area they weren't welcomed

"Because it's what males do. They seek power and when it's not given to them, they take it" Alana said with a hint of hatred in her voice, before realizing that Simba himself was a male.

"Yea... I guess we do" Simba said, feeling a little hurt that people similar to him did suck terrible things to good people.

"Not you of course" Alana said, nuzzling into him to comfort him. Simba was surprised by her nuzzle, but returned it nonetheless, before feeling her purr...

"Um... Your majesty?" Simba asked unsure of why she was purring. Alana quickly realized what she was doing and pulled back in shame, not knowing what caused her to conduct herself like that.

"I'm sorry. Forgive me" Alana said, avoiding eye contact.

"It's ok... I uhh... well my sisters purr a lot so I'm kinda used to it" Simba said and saw that Alana looked up at him with a confused looked, not a way that Mufasa had any daughters, and Simba picked up on her confusions. "They're not my real sisters, but I love them as if they were" Simba said.

"What are their names?" Alana asked.

"Tama and Kula" Simba said with a smile, thinking back to all the good times he's had with them.

"And I'm guessing by that smile that you're in love?" Alana asked, knowing that look anywhere. Alana watched as Simba quickly killed his smile, wondering who she was talking about.

"Not with them, but with a girl named Nala" Simba said, dreaming back to Nala and wishing he could cuddle with her.

"That's a pretty name" Alana said, liking the sound of Nala.

"Yea, she sure is" Simba said with a dreamy smile, causing Alana to chuckle at how much he was in love with her to even understand her.

"And what about Ariya?" Alana asked, wondering what he thought about her daughter. Alana watched as Simba dropped his dreamy smile, and looked a little frantic to come up with an answer, making her wonder what his feelings towards her were.

"Well... I haven't known her for long... and she's friendly..." Simba said, thinking back to all the times she just started to treat him like her brother without him knowing her too well, which was weird at first, but he got used to it. "But she's also a sister to me" Simba said, earing a smile from Alana.

"She seems very fond of you" Alana said, noticing that her daughter seemed to be very close to him based on the events of last night.

"Most girls my age are..." Simba said with a hopeless tone, not knowing why he always found himself in a situation where a girl his age was gluing herself to him.

"I don't doubt you" Alana said with a chuckle and watched as Simba gave her a confused looked in which she started to notice that he seemed to be a very confused person from time to time, and that was the look he always gave when he was.

Alana continued to look over at Simba who was looking around the place unsure of what to say or do, purposely not saying anything as she wanted to see how long it would be before he made the next move.

"So..." Simba said after about a minute of uncomfortable silence, not being able to take it anymore. "Is there anything I need to be doing today?" Simba asked, wondering if she had some other test or task for him to complete to show his worth.

"Rest" Alana said, knowing that he had a rough day yesterday and probably needed some sleep.

"Well... I'm really not that tired" Simba said, and watched as Alana gave him a smirk.

"Well then. Follow me" Alana said, sitting up and starting to walk back to the den.

Simba began to follow her and noticed that she wasn't heading towards the royal den, but towards the den he met her in yesterday when she was surrounded by those young cubs. Upon entering the den, Simba felt the air thicken as all the lionesses inside gave him an uncomfortable and stern look that told him none of them were at all happy to see that he was here.

"Just follow my lead" Alana said, knowing that if she said he was welcomed here then none of the lionesses would give him trouble.

Alana led Simba over towards the back where the same young five cubs were from yesterday, with two lionesses that were undoubtedly their mothers.

"Akina, Zahara" Alana said with a smile, greeting the two mothers. Akina and Zahara smiled back at her, before looking past her and seeing Simba approaching, causing them to drop their smiles and pull their cubs close.

"Hi" Simba said upon walking over to them and watched as they both continued to glare at him while shielding their cubs from him, neither of them ever greeting him back. Simba could tell that they weren't happy with his presence, and felt like leaving and isolating himself so he didn't have to think about it, but Queen Alana requested that he accompany her.

All Simba could do was give them a friendly posture and blank face as they continued to glare him down when he felt something bump into his back paw, causing him to look around and see the same cub from yesterday that tried to climb him. Upon looking back, Simba saw from the corner of his eye as Akina sprung up and made a low but audible growl as she went to get her cub, keeping her eyes locked on him the entire time as she didn't trust him.

"Running away as always" Alana said, being able to hear the growl and quickly said something to try and lighten the situation before something bad happened.

"Yes" Akina said, glaring at Simba.

"Well, I need to attend to some royal business. Simba, wait here for me" Alana said, purposely leaving Simba behind to see what he would do without her gone. In truth, she wasn't going to be doing any royal business as she was going to be around the corner in case something bad were to happen. Simba watched as Alana exited the den, before looking back to see that Akina and Zahara were still glaring at him, and thought that he would try and talk to them to maybe get them to see he wasn't like the other males.

"So..." Simba said, trying to think of something to say. "Does he normally run off like that?" Simba asked, motioning towards the cub who she just retrieved. Simba watched as the two continued to glare at him, neither of them having any intention of talking to him.

"Right" Simba said, trying to continue to see if he could make them talk. "Well, my name is Simba. I'm from the pride lands" Simba said introducing himself, wondering if starting where he was from would make them any more open towards him.

Simba watched as they still continued to glare at him, making him realize just how much they didn't trust him. "So, how old are they?" Simba asked, looking at the cubs who were being shielded from him by their mothers.

"Well... Do they have names?" Simba asked, wondering if they were ever going to talk to him while Alana was gone. Simba was looking back and forth between Akina and Zahara when he saw the same cub from earlier break free of Akina and run towards him, hugging his paw.

Akina quickly stood up and retrieved the young cub, before growling at Simba warning him to not move.

"He sure is adventurous" Simba said, watching as they continued to glare at him. Simba knew that they weren't going to talk to him, and knew that he was just wasting his time, so he just stood there in silence, looking down at this paws while he waited for Alana to return.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, Simba looked over to see an antelope carcass sitting in the corner, with meat still left on it. It had been two days since last ate, making it very tempting to help himself.

"Is it ok if I had some?" Simba said, pointing towards the carcass. Simba watched as they didn't give him a response, but instead, Akina got up and walked over to the carcass. Simba thought that he was starting to get somewhere in making the see he was a good person, but though too soon as Akina came back with a bone that only had tough cartilage on it and dropped it at his paws.

"Thank you" Simba said before picking up the bone, still trying to be polite and respectful. Akina was surprised to hear that Simba was thankful for such a pathetic excuse of a meal when there was real meat laying around, but didn't waste any energy thinking on it. Simba took the bone and walked over to an unoccupied corner and started to nibble the cartilage off, using old tactics from his childhood to be able to remove it. Simba glanced up to see that several lionesses were giving him looks of disgust, making him feel bad, but then again he was hungry and this was the only thing he was given.

After removing all the cartilage off the bone, Simba cracked the bone in half and began to fish out the bone marrow on the inside, earning him truly disgusted looks this time, lowering his self-confidence even more, but like before his hunger was telling him to continue.

After a while, Simba had removed all the bone marrow and was left with just a plain old bone, which overall did nothing to satisfy his hunger as it seemed to only have made him want more. Simba looked up to see that Akina and Zahara had moved, along with their cub over to the carcass and saw that the cubs were currently playing with it and tasting real meat for the first time, making him crave it even more.

Simba knew that he needed food, and could feel that he was lightheaded and sick due to the amount of blood her loss yesterday and having very little energy to replace the lost blood, but knew that this wasn't his home and he wasn't welcome to help himself to something that wasn't his.

Simba couldn't take it anymore, and stood up and began to walk towards Akina and Zahara, earning glares from them when they noticed his approach. Simba knew they didn't like him, and they had every reason to hate males, but he felt like he needed food and since they were currently in charge of the carcass, it was up to them.

"Hey, I know I've already had some, but... is it possible that I could get some more?" Simba asked, wondering if they would spare him any. Simba watched as Zahara reached behind her and tossed him a bone, this one having no cartilage and the marrow was rotten, rendering in uneditable. Simba moved the bone around a little, inspecting it to see if there was anything on it that could be eaten, and was disappointed to find that there was not an ounce of edible material on it.

"Um... I'm not trying to be rude but... Could I maybe get one that has a little more on it?" Simba asked, and watched as Akina and Zahara deepened their glares, letting him know that it was probably going to be a 'no'.

Simba watched as Zahara reached behind her and picked up a bone that had a large portion of meat on it, and Simba's eyes lit up. Simba let a smile come to his face but then watched as she removed all the meat of the bone, leaving just the cartilage on there, before tossing in at Simba's paw.

Simba's smile was killed when she did this and was replaced by a frown, wondering why she had to tease him like that since he was so hungry. "Thank you" Simba said, sounding depressed which caught both Akina and Zahara by surprised as they watched him pick up the bone and walk away with his head hung low and shoulders slumped.

Akina and Zahara watched as Simba start to pick off the little cartridge that was on the bone, and within a minute the entire thing was picked clean. They watched as he snapped the bone open, only to find that the marrow was rotten and would be no good. They both pitied him a little but weren't concerned for his well being, other their cubs'.

Simba slowly got up and approached a lioness near him that was all by herself, wondering if she'd be any more friendly. Simba sat down in front of her and smiled at her, and in return she just ignored him. "I'm Simba" Simba said, wondering if she would want to talk. Simba watched as she stood up and walked away, an obvious sign that she didn't care.

Simba got up and walked over to a pair of lionesses who had been watching him the entire time, wondering if either of them would want to talk. "Hi, I'm Simba" Simba said as he sat down in front of the two. Simba watched as the two of them just stared at him with neither of them saying anything in return. "I'm from the pride lands" Simba added, wondering if they knew where he was from they would be more accepting of him. Simba watched as they both continued to stare at him, telling him they also didn't care and didn't want to talk.

Simba got up and walked over to another pair of lionesses, noticing that one was Lulu and felt a surge of hope inside of him as he had met her yesterday and he already knew her name.

"Hey" Simba said with a smile as he sat down in front of the two. "You're Lulu, right? I remember meeting you yesterday" Simba said with a hopeful smile and watched as Lulu looked at him like he was a total stranger and she had never seen him in her life. "Do you remember me?" Simba asked, desperately wanting her to say something. Simba watched as she continued to look at him like he was crazy, telling him she too had nothing to say to him. "Oh... well... that's ok. I remember you" Simba said standing up, knowing that she hadn't forgotten him but didn't want to annoy her.

Simba continued in a circle and stopped at a group of three, hoping that at least one would smile or do something. "Hey, I'm Simba. I'm from the pride lands" Simba said, wondering if they would spare a few words in his direction. Simba watched as the three of the ignored him, not even looking at him. "I'm visiting with my aunt, Sarafina" Simba said, wondering if they would know his aunt and be willing to talk to him. Simba watched as they continued to ignore him, making him more desperate. "Queen Alana asked for me to come down to escort her daughters" Simba said, wondering if they'd be interested in that. Simba watched as they continued to ignore him, and knew they would talk to him.

Simba got up and left the lionesses with a heavy feeling in his gut, and saw that the next and last people in his circle were Akina and Zahara. "Hello" Simba said with a smile as he sat down, and noticed that they weren't glaring at him this time, but they didn't look like they wanted to talk. "Um... So... wanna talk?" Simba said, and watched as they turned around and ignored him.

Simba sighed when they did this but wasn't at all surprised with it, so sat up and walked away, before laying down and waiting for Queen Alana to return.

Simba was laying down in silence when he noticed that the same cub from before was sneaking over towards him, and upon reaching him, started playing with his mane. "Hey, little guy" Simba said, wondering how he was so successful in sneaking away from his mother. "You need to get you back to your mother" Simba said, gentle moving him in front of him.

Simba heard him release some cub noise which he didn't understand the meaning to and froze, wondering what the young cub wanted. Upon doing this, Simba watched as he climbed over his head and stood on his head and neck, continuing to play with his mane, wondering what about his mane was so fascinating to this young cub.

Simba sighed a little, too scared to move him himself out of fear of hurting him, and didn't want to call his mother over since she clearly didn't like him, so he continued to rest his head, when he saw Queen Alana make her way back into the cave, causing his hopes to rise higher than they had been all day.

"Making a new friend are we?" Alana said as she made her ways towards Simba, wondering why he gave up trying to get the other lionesses to like him. Alana knew that they weren't going to like him, but she was at least hoping that they would talk to him.

"I guess" Simba said, feeling the cub bite and yank on his mane.

"Well good. Because we'll be looking after them today" Alana said, earning a nervous look from Simba. Alana knew that after teaching him some basic things he would ease up, but wanted to see how he would act around young cubs since he had never met any before.

"But... Akina and Zahara don't really like me. No one does" Simba said, knowing that no one would support her decision and letting him anywhere near the cubs.

"Which is why you will be with me the entire time" Alana said, before motioning for him to follow her. Alana watched as Simba remained frozen and realized that the young cub was still on top of him and he was too afraid to move. "He'll be fine" Alana said, gentle pulling Simba up and guiding him towards Akina and Zahara.

Akina and Zahara looked up to see that Alana was walking towards them and smiled at her, and then glared over at Simba to see he was following her, but both quickly saw the young cub on his head and search around to indeed find that they only had four cubs instead of five, and quickly got up to intercept Simba with low growls.

"Akina. Zahara. It's ok" Alana said, moving in there way. Alana knew it wasn't a good idea to stand between a mother and her cub, but she needed to show them that Simba was a good person.

Simba watched as Akina and Zahara both gave him glares, telling him that the only reason he was still intact was that Alana had saved him.

"Simba, please return their cub" Alana said in a calm voice and watched as Simba walked up to the two before lying down and presenting their cub who was still playing with his mane. Akina quickly retrieved him and found that he was enjoying playing with Simba, making her feel bad about taking his fun away but a monster was no person to have fun with in her book.

"So, how are your mornings going?" Alana asked, laying down and making herself comfortable before motioning for Simba to do the same.

"They were going well" Zahara said, before giving Simba an uncomfortable look.

"Oh, well that's too bad. Anyway, I wasn't able to do this before so I'd like to introduce Prince Simba of the pride lands" Alana said, watching as both Akina and Zahara gave her surprised looks, not having realized he was a prince.

"Why is he here?" Akina asked, giving Alana a look that told her she didn't trust him one bit.

"To escort my daughters back to the pride lands of course" Alana said, having announced his arrival of why she brought a male into the pride.

"Why is he here. In this cave. Next to our cubs?" Akina said, clearing up the question, and watched as Alana dropped her smile a bit realizing that Akina wanted him gone.

"He's going to help babysit the cubs today" Alana said and watched as both Akina and Zahara wore hateful glares.

"There is no way I will be letting a baby-killer near my cubs" Akina said, making Alana worry her plan wouldn't work and confusing Simba.

"Baby Killer?" Simba asked, having only ever confirmed killing one person before and they surely were not a cub.

"Yes. There used to be eight cubs. Now there are only five. The other three were killed by your kind" Zahara said with hatred in her voice, feeling the pain of losing a cub return again.

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that" Simba said, not knowing that three of the cubs had been killed by the exiled males.

"No you're not" Akina said with a bit of laugh, knowing that he had probably just said that to boost his reputation. "I couldn't expect someone like you to know what loss of a family member would feel like" Akina said, clearly unaware of Simba's past.

Simba felt the pains of his childhood return for a brief moment, as he remembered the fact that his mother was dead and would never be returning. "Yea... I... I guess I wouldn't be able to understand what losing a family member would be like. I never even had her to begin with" Simba said, standing up and exiting the cave, not caring if Queen Alana wanted him to stay in that moment since all he wanted was to get away from everyone in that cave except her.

"Finally. He's gone" Zahara said, letting go of her cubs so they could frolic again, before looking over to see that Alana, her Queen had a furious face on.

"Very well done. Do you have any idea of what you just said to him?" Alana said, raising her voice a little. Akina and Zahara were taken back by this a bit since they were unsure of what Alana was talking about.

"No, but he's one of them, Alana. What did you expect when you brought him here?" Zahara asked, wondering how Alana could be mad at them after all the terrible things that male lions had done to them and their pride.

"He's nothing like them. Nothing. And he would understand the pain of losing a family member. His mother died giving birth to him. So I expect both of you to give him an apology by the end of the day" Alana said with a stern look, getting up and storming after Simba.

Akina and Zahara looked at each other in horror upon hearing this, not having realized the impact of their words, knowing that they had made a huge mistake. They never even gave him the chance to prove who he was and because of that they judged him early and now had to find a way to make him forgive them. Akina and Zarahara watched as Alana exited the cave, knowing that their queen was furious.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

"Simba!" Alana said, trotting up to Simba and watched as he turned around and waited for her. Alana was relieved to see that he didn't look mad and wasn't trying to avoid people as she would have expected him to. "Simba" Alana said once she reached him, nuzzling into him. "I'm so sorry about what they said. They aren't terrible people it's just that they don't trust males. It might seem like it has something to do with you, but they just haven't given you a chance yet" Alana said, hoping that Simba would be at least slightly forgiving towards Akina and Zahara.

"I know" Simba said with a sigh. "I don't think going in there was the best idea. They hate me" Simba said, wondering why Alana thought that they would trust him or want to be his friend.

"They don't hate you..." Alana said, giving him a confused look as she wasn't sure how to say what she wanted to say. "It's just that they hate males. And you happen to be one. It's nothing against who you are as a person just that you happen to be a male" Alana said, hoping he would understand.

"Yea, I understand that" Simba said, before continuing to walk away.

"Simba" Alana said, walking in front of him and stopping him. "Please. Go back with them and try again" Alana said pleading, something she never did. Alana watched as Simba gave her an unsure look, telling her that he wasn't convinced. "Please Simba. I'll be there with you the entire time and nothing bad will happen. I need them to trust you. I need them to see that you're not like the other" Alana said, hoping he would consider it.

Simba gave Alana an uncertain look, before looking down at his paws and sighing. "Ok" Simba said, looking back up at her to see that she was wearing a grateful smile.

Simba and Alana made their way back into the den and over to Akina and Zahara who were avoiding eye contact with Simba.

"Akina. Zahara" Alana said, telling them that they need to apologize.

"We're sorry for what we said. We didn't know about your mother" Akina said, knowing that what she said was a sorry excuse for an apology but she had only had a few minutes to think of one and there wasn't much to say without lying.

"It's ok" Simba said, watching as Alana laid down and followed her lead. Simba watched as a female cub ran up to her and began to nuzzle into her, and watched as Alana returned the small cubs nuzzles showing it affection and love.

Alana noticed that Simba was giving her a strange look, and then realized what it was. Simba had never done this as a younger cub so he didn't know what it felt like, so to see it when he was older made him think back to how much he wished he could have done that when he was younger, explaining the look on his face.

"They were born last week" Zahara said, answering one of his questions from before. "Their eyes opened only a few days ago" Akina added, feeling bad about ignoring Simba so decided to try and say something on the matter.

Simba looked over at Akina and Zahara and noticed that one of their cubs was approaching him cautiously, wondering who he was having never met him before. Unlike last time, Simba noticed that Akina and Zahara didn't try and stop the young cub, but they were still watching him closely and ready to spring into action at the first sign of trouble as any concerned mother would do.

Simba watched as the young cub walked up to him and began to sniff him, taking in his scent, before starting to poke at him. Simba saw that the cub was only a little bigger than his paw and was just amazed that something so small would one day grow up to be the most feared animal in the lands.

Simba felt the cub start to climb his arm, before sinking her razor-sharp cub teeth in his ear and started to roughy yank on it while playing with it. Simba watched as Akina quickly began to stand up, but stopped once she noticed that Simba didn't react in any way when she did his, allowing her to nibble on his ear.

"They also just started teething" Alana said with a smile, glad that Akina and Zahara were letting one of the cubs bond with Simba.

"She's so small" Simba said, obviously uncomfortable as he wasn't moving at all out of fear of hurting her.

Simba saw from the corner of his eye as two other cubs, one being the little adventures one from before approaching him and start climbing over him, biting at everything they could. Alana watched as Simba remained completely still but tense while the three cubs continued to roam around and play with him, causing her to laugh a little.

"It's ok to move them" Alana said, seeing that Simba hadn't tried to move the cub that was stilling chewing on his ear.

"How?" Simba asked, looking at how small they were and expecting them to be very fragile.

"Just pick them up" Alana demonstrated, using her paw to scoop the cub in front of her up, before gently setting her down.

Simba cautiously brought his arm over and picked the cub up, before gently placing her down in front of him. Upon doing this, the cub pounced on his arm that was clawed open the night before, causing him to release a hiss of pain but remained still and calm.

Simba watched as Akina and Zahara quickly prepared to stand up and rescue their cub, but watched as Simba didn't make any intentions to harm the cubs, and sat back down.

Simba felt the same cub that jumped onto his arm nuzzle into his neck as a way of saying sorry, before rolling over and playfully swatting at his nose and muzzle, causing him to smile a little.

"Having fun?" Alana said, looking over at Simba who was engaged in gentle playing with the younger cub.

"They're so... Small and just... I don't know..." Simba said, trying to find the words to describe what was going on in his head. "I've never seen a cub this young and I'm just... well... They're just amazing to me" Simba said, feeling one roll of his head and down his shoulders.

"They're cubs" Alana said with a small chuckle.

"Simba?" Sarafina said from behind him, walking up to him and wondering how Akina and Zahara came to trust him so quickly with their cubs. Sarafina walked up to him and looked down to see that there were three young cubs that still looked to be too young to talk climbing over him and playing with his mane.

"Hi" Simba said, looking up at Sarafina and wondering why she was looking at him with such a surprised look.

Sarafina sat down next to Simba and watched as the three young cubs that were climbing all over him darted over to her and made her their new play toy. Sarafina looked down at the young cubs with a smile and started to play with them, reliving the moments where Nala and Mheetu were their sizes.

Simba was looking over at Sarafina when he realized something. There were five cubs in total. One was with Alana, three were with Sarafina, which meant that there was one that was hiding somewhere. Simba looked around and spotted the young lion hiding under Zahara, peaking out at him with both a shy and scared look.

Zahara noticed that Simba was staring at her, and followed his line of sight to her cub that was hiding in her lap. "She's very shy and cautious" Zahara said, knowing that Simba was probably wondering why she was staying back while her brothers and sisters were playing.

"Oh" Simba said, looking down at the cub and watching as he sunk deeper into her mother's arms when she made eye contact with him.

"Morning Simba" Ariya said, trotting up to Simba and laying on top of him, resting her chin on the top of his head, pinning him to the ground in a way. Akina and Zahara were surprised to see the princess act so fond and flirtatious around Simba and were unable to tell if they were friends or something else.

"Ariya..." Alana said in an unamused tone, telling Ariya that she wasn't appropriately conducting herself in public.

"Sorry" Ariya said as she rolled off of him and nuzzled into her mother. Ariya looked back over at Simba and noticed something that caught her eye. Ariya could see little claw marks all over his head, back, and shoulders that were bleeding just a little and moved in to clean them out.

Upon doing this, Ariya felt her mother nudge her telling her again that her actions were inappropriate and she needed to act more civilized. Ariya groaned when her mother did and moved back over with an annoyed look on her face.

"So" Sarafina said, herding the cubs into her arms so she could better study them. "What are our plans for today?" Sarafina asked, wondering if Alana had any more tasks or tests for Simba to complete.

"Well I invited Simba to meet the cubs, but other than that I don't have anything planned" Alana said, looking over at Simba with a curious look in her eyes.

"Ah, well, I'm sure there's something that we can-" "Alana!" Sarafina was saying, before being cut off by someone at the front of the cave. Everyone looked over to see that Avana was at the top of the cave clearly in a panic. "The exiles have taken Mapenzi. I tried to stop them but I was no match for them!" Avana said, making everyone panic.

Everyone looked over at Alana to see that she was in a panic herself. "Ok, Lionesses with me. Akina and Zahara, protect the young. Ariya and Simba stay here and... just stay here" Alana said, getting and running towards Avana.

"I can help" Simba said, stepping in front of Alana and giving her a determined look. Alana gave him an unsure look, but something about the look he was giving her told her than he knew what he was doing and understood the risk he was taken and the various outcomes.

"Very well" Alana said, sprinting out of the cave with her pride in tow.

"Where did you last see them?" Alana said, stopping as she didn't know which direction she needed to go.

"By the elder trees" Avana said and followed Alana as she and the others sprinted in the direction of the eldest tree in the lands.

Simba was following the others, and noticed that they were heading in the direction of the tree that he climbed the other day as part of a test, which was also the area that he first met those three males, and had a feeling of why they took Mapenzi and what they would want in return if they weren't planning to just kill her.

Upon reaching the tree, the group stopped as they saw seven male lions in a semi-circle with one in the center holding his claws over Mapenzi's throat ready to kill her.

"If anyone so much as takes another step I'll cut her throat open!" He yelled upon seeing the group arrive.

"Please. Release my daughter and take me" Alana said, willing to give up her dignity for the sake of her daughters, know what the males wanted.

"We don't want you" He yelled. "We want him" He said in a quieter voice, pointing at Simba with a look of hatred. Everyone looked over at Simba and saw that he was making his way over to the lions, but was stopped by Sarafina.

"Let me go" Simba said, resiting Sarafina's grasp and breaking free. Simba watched as Sarafina gave him a pleading look, and in return gave her a look of his own telling her that this was something he had to do. Simba watched as Sarafina looked to be hesitant, but finally nodded and took a step back.

"What do you want" Simba said in an annoyed voice, walking up to the group in an unintimidated manner.

"You... Dead" The lions said, tightening his grip on Mapenzi causing her to shriek. Simba stiffened his glare when he did this, wondering why the monster had to get a young girl involved in this mess.

"Very well" Simba said, confusing everyone. "Give her back and I'll let you kill me" Simba said.

"I'm not an idiot" The lions said, knowing that Simba was trying to trick him.

"Look. Just give her back already. Nobody here wants to deal with you and your wanna-be tough guy attitude" Simba said sounding annoyed, making the lionesses wondering why he was teasing the group when they had a hostage.

"What did you just say?" The lion said, giving him a hateful glare.

"What are you deaf? I said, Just give her back already. Nobody here wants to deal with you and your wanna-be tough guy attitude. And if that isn't clear enough then I can find someone who can sharpen your speaking skills" Simba said, taunting him some more.

Simba watched as the lion threw Mapenzi at the lionesses, in which Mapenzi bolted towards her mother and began to cry into her chest with sobs loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Now listen to-" "Shut up" The lion was saying, before Simba cut him off, both enraging and surprising him that this younger lion had the will to do such a thing.

"Now listen and you listen well. I don't who you are or what you want but let's get one thing straight. You are going to leave me and these lionesses alone or you're going off that fucking cliff" Simba said, taking a step forward and motioning to the cliff that was to their left.

"That's it" He roared, running towards Simba with all his strength to end his annoying life.

Simba caught the lion and spun him around, sending him flying off to the left and consequently off the cliff, causing everyone to listen to the sounds of his screams as the slowly grew quiet until they stopped with the sound of bone and meat slamming into rock and dirt. "I warned him" Simba said to the remain six lions, recognizing one as the one who he punched in the face last night.

Simba watched as one sprinted towards him, and Simba responded by catching him and snapping his neck, killing him instantly. Everyone watched as the lion's body dropped to the floor instantly and laid there motionless with an obvious and abnormal crook is his neck which was undoubtedly the bone.

Simba had had enough of these lions and knew that knocking them out and sending them away would only cause them to come back with more hate, so knew that the only thing that would get through them was death.

"Anyone else?" Simba asked, looking as they all had hesitant looks. "Good, now leave" Simba said, turning around and beginning to walk away. The second after turning around, Simba heard the sound of a lion sprinting towards him and quickly turned around slammed his paw into the side of his head causing obvious brain damage by the sound it made and how fast the lion fell to the floor.

Simba looked across the faces of the remaining male lions and saw that they all stood up and began to retreat, knowing that Simba wasn't going to be anymore sparing to their lives than he was to the others. Simba watched them retreat until he could no longer see them, and turned around to meet the looks of many speechless lionesses.

Simba started to walk back towards them and felt a strange feeling wash over his body but pushed it aside. Simba made eye contact with Sarafina and watched as her expressions went from concerned and worried to outright terrified, making him wonder what was wrong.

Simba continued to feel that strange feeling take ahold of him, but unlike last time he couldn't push it away and collapsed. Simba watched Sarafina and the others run towards him as his vision blurred before everything went black...

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

 _Simba woke up in a familiar place and felt a very peaceful atmosphere all around him, telling him just where he was. Simba stood up on the cloud-like structure and naturally started to search for his mother, wondering what was wrong._

 _"Mom?" Simba called out, not spotting her at first but saw as she stepped out towards him from some bright light as any stereotypical angle like being would._

 _"Simba" Sarabi said, walking up and hugging her son._

 _"Am I dead?" Simba said, returning her hug and then breaking it so he could talk to her._

 _"No" Sarabi said with a chuckle. "You'll be just fine" She said with a smile, nuzzling into him. Simba returned her nuzzle but was confused as to why she had brought him here. The last thing Simba remembered was blacking out, and then waking up here so it made sense to think that he had died._

 _"Then why am I here?" Simba asked, not mad or upset that he was getting to see his mother but only curious._

 _"Well, you're not dead but you aren't doing that well. You're sure giving your aunt a real fright" Sarabi said, looking over at Simba to see that he was confused. "You're hurt. Bad. But you'll be ok" Sarabi said, letting him on to what was going on._

 _"Oh..." Simba said, realizing that he must have blacked out from an injury he got from the encounter with those lions._

 _"Queen Alana seems to be very fond of you" Sarabi said, changing the subject as she wanted to talk to him about that but he had avoided her all the other times she attempted to talk to him, but this time he had nowhere to go._

 _"Yea, I guess" Simba said, wondering why Alana had warmed up to him so quickly despite her previous experiences with males._

 _"You seem ready to go back to the pride lands" Sarabi said, knowing that Simba missed his friends. "Will you take her with you?" Sarabi asked, wanting to know if Simba would take Alana with him despite her ability to read his mind._

 _"If she wishes to come, yes. I feel bad that she hast to send her daughters away just to keep them safe" Simba said, not knowing what the kind of pain felt like._

 _"Yes" Sarabi said, wearing a bit of a sad look. "Well, today you have shown her something very important" Sarabi said with a smile, resting her paw on his cheek and brushing his fur._

 _"I have?" Simba asked, wondering why he showed her this time that he didn't the first time he encountered the male lions._

 _"Yes" Sarabi said with a chuckle. "You have shown her Courage, strength, and perseverance" Sarabi said, knowing that Alana had been looking for those inside him ever since he arrived._

 _"Oh" Simba said, not realizing that he had even shown anything like that, to begin with._

 _"Yes" Sarabi said, nuzzling her son. "Well... It's been a while for them so I think you should return and let your aunt and Queen Alana know you're ok" Sarabi said, preparing to let Simba go. Sarabi felt Simba return her nuzzle and hug her, making her feel awful about having to wake him up, but knew that it was just something that had to be done._

 _"I love you" Sarabi said, returning his hug._

 _"I love you too mom" Simba said, burying his head into her neck for comfort, and stayed that way for a while until he felt everything start to fade away, and fell towards his body..._

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Unlike every other time, Simba slowly started to regain consciousness, still unable to move, open his eyes, or even talk. Simba felt heavy, weak, and had a large headache that was pounding its way through his skull each second.

After a few seconds, Simba was able to open his eyes and found everything to be blurry. Simba blinked a few times and was able to clear up his eye and see that he was back inside the royal den with everyone inside.

Simba could feel that Sarafina was holding him in a protective motherly embrace, Alana was keeping Ariya from disturbing the two of them, and Avana was comforting Mapenzi after having been taken hostage by the males. Simba tried to move, and felt his headache spike and felt pain shoot through his body causing him to groan, alerting everyone that he was awake.

"Simba?!" Sarafina said frantically, fearing that Simba wouldn't wake up. Sarafina looked down to see that Simba was looking up at her with a confused face making her relieved that he was awake.

"Aun...tie?" Simba said slowly, unable to tell if it was Sarafina or Alana do to tunnel vision and blurry vision.

"Yes" Sarafina said smiling, nuzzling into him and felt him groan in pain, causing her to shoot back in guilt.

"What happened?" Simba said, shifting into a more comfortable position while feeling Sarafina prepare to prevent him from standing up incase he tried.

"You saved Mapenzi and fought of those lions, but got hurt in the process" Sarafina said, gentle running her paw through Simbas mane as he rested his head in her lap.

"Is... Mapenzi ok?" Simba said, having trouble remembering what happened.

"Yes. She's safe. We all are" Sarafina said, licking the top of Simba's head.

"Oh, good" Simba said sounding relieved. Simba tried to stand up but felt Sarafina hold him down gently preventing him from doing so.

"No Simba" Sarafina said. "You need to rest. You're hurt" Sarafina said with concern in her voice, not wanting Simba to push himself and hurt himself further.

"I'll be fine, trust me" Simba said, attempting to stand up again but felt her hold him down again, still refusing to let him up.

"No" Sarafina said in a much sterner tone.

"Please?" Simba asked in a voice he had never used before and felt as Sarafina stopped pulling him down but continued to hold him in place. Simba felt Sarafina slowly let go and Simba began to slowly stand up while Sarafina got up with him in case he hurt himself doing so.

Upon standing up, Simba felt dizzy and leaned into Sarafina for support. Simba started to look himself over and saw that the claws marks on his arm from the night before had reopened and caused him to pass out from blood loss. Upon thinking of passing out, Simba looked outside to see that the sun had just set meaning that he had been out all day.

"Simba?" Ariya said as she made her way around her mother who was no longer holding her back. Ariya walked up to Simba and gently nuzzled into him and felt him return her nuzzle.

"Hey" Simba said with a smile, glad to see she was ok.

"How do you feel?" Ariya said, sitting down in front of him and beginning to look all over him to see how he was doing physically.

"Bad but I'll be fine" Simba said looking down at her and saw that she had tear stains on her face, making him feel guilty as always.

"We were worried" Ariya said, looking up and giving Simba an emotional look, making him feel even guiltier. "They had to drag you back and by the time we could do anything you had already lost a lot of blood" Ariya said, wishing she could forget the sight of Simba dying.

"I know. But I'm ok now, and It's going to be ok" Simba said, nuzzling into Ariya and felt her return his nuzzle. Simba looked past Ariya and saw that Alana was looking at him with a look that he had seen Sarafina wear only a few times and knew it had a very emotional meaning. Simba broke the nuzzle with Ariya and slowly began to walk over to Alana who looked eager to speak with him.

"A word?" Alana asked in a quiet voice when Simba was close enough for her to hear him. Alana got up and began to lead him out of the cave, to the left, and up a hill that led to a flat surface above the cave that overlooked the grasslands.

"I wanted to thank you" Alana said, giving him an emotional look as soon as they reached the top. Alana watched as Simba moved to the ledge and sat down, looking out towards the grasslands. Alana walked up to him and sat down next to him, looking over at him to see what he was looking at.

"What you did earlier today meant a lot to me Simba. It truly did" Alana said, wanting him to understand how grateful she was for saving her daughter's life. Alana watched as Simba wore a light smile and chuckled for a second, before dropping both of them and looking up.

"I know" Simba said, remembering back to the two times he had saved Mheetu and how thankful Sarafina was.

"I... Don't know what we would have done without you..." Alana said with a frown, dropping her head and looking down at her paws as the thought of what would have happened without him crossed her eye. Simba looked over at her and saw that she had both a sad and upset look on her face and had a pretty good idea about what she was going through.

"I'm sure you would have done the same thing" Simba said, knowing that Alana wouldn't have thought twice about giving her life for one of her daughters.

"Of course... but I'm not a fighter" Alana said, looking up and seeing that Simba had a confused look on her face. "I'm not good at fighting. I'm small, not strong at all, and I don't know how to fight" Alana said, and watched as Simba wore a look that told her he understood.

"I don't doubt your ability to protect your daughters" Simba said, giving her a smile to try and cheer her up. Simba was hoping that his words would motivate her but he saw a mood change flash across her face and knew his words did the exact opposite.

"I do. None of this would have happened if I had been paying attention. If I could protect my daughters on my own I wouldn't be sending them to the pride lands. I need you Simba. I need you to protect them. I need you to protect me" Alana said wearing an embarrassed and degraded expression.

"I... Can't stay" Simba said, knowing that his urge to go home would only get worse as time went on. "I have a mate and two sisters back home that I can't stand to be away from" Simba said, hoping she would understand.

"I know, which is why I wish to return to the pride lands with you and resign my queenship to my sister" Alana said and watched as Simba gave her a shocked look.

"Wait... you mean leaving entirely and living your life in the pride lands?" Simba asked wondering if he had heard her right. She had worked so hard after the collapse to keep her pride safe and intact, so he was surprised that she was willing to just give it all up when her daughter would be safe.

"With your permission of course" Alana said getting into a bit of a submissive posture, begging for him to accept her to his pride.

"Of course... but... don't you want to stay with your family and pride?" Simba asked, wondering if she wanted to stay with the land the lions she had known her whole life.

"Simba... There's something you need to know..." Alana said, giving him a serious look. "I wasn't born here" Alana said, surprising him. "I was born in the pride lands. One day a young price stumbled in and well... we fell in love with each other. After a week it was time for him to return and he asked me to be his queen and well... obviously I accepted" Alana said, watching as he stared at her dumbfounded.

"You're a pridelander?" Simba asked, wondering why no one back home ever talked about her.

"Was. I left" Alana said. "And now I wish to return and live the rest of my years in peace. Too long have I had to worry about the safety of daughters. Too long have I feared to drink from the river due to the possibility of an ambush. Too long has it been since I've slept in peace. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of everything. I need a break Simba. Please. Help me" Alana said starting to gentle sob.

"Well... you can come with us and join our pride" Simba said, trying to calm her down.

"Thank you" Alana said, hugging Simba with all her strength and felt him release a painful groan, causing her to quickly let go and make sure she didn't hurt him. Alana watched as Simba gave her a slight smile but there was still a hint of pain in her smile, making her feel bad.

"I'm sorry" Alana said, beginning to groom Simba out and treat him like a young cub. Alana was lost in grooming and comforting Simba as if he was some young cub when she realized what she was doing and quickly stopped, feeling both embarrassed and ashamed.

"Forgive me" Alana said, taking several steps back.

"For what?" Simba asked, wondering what she was asking forgiveness for.

"I... Haven't done that in awhile" Alana said, wearing a miserable look. Simba pitied Alana when she said this, feeling awful for her. She was a queen of a pride that suffered from a terrible civil war that lost her her mate and nearly lost her her cubs and she was torn between her heart and her queenly duties making her life a living hell.

Alana watched as Simba walked up to her and rolled over, resting his head at her paws as a young cub would. If Alana was understanding him correctly, this was the way a young cub would beg for attention meaning that he was allowing her to show the motherly affection she no longer got to express with Ariya and Mapenzi.

Alana gentle sat down and wrapped Simba up, feeling him rest his head into her arms, and Alana began to gentle groom him, grateful that he was allowing her to do this. Alana wasn't sure why Simba didn't mind this stuff at his age since he has long outgrown it, but wasn't complaining as she was desperate to be a mother once again.

Simba was laying down, relaxed in her embrace when he felt her slowly stop grooming him and then shortly after felt her start to sob into his mane, making him wonder what was on. Simba wasn't sure what to do since he had never seen an adult cry too hard. He had seen Sarafina have a break down once, but right now Alana was full-blown sobbing which was just sickening to see an adult do.

"Alana?" Simba asked unsurely after a while, wondering if there was anything that he could do for her. Simba was used to helping his sisters when they got all emotional and helpless but the same with Sarafina, he wasn't sure what to do when an adult was crying.

"I'm sorry" Alana said, pulling her head away and looking away. Alana was grateful for what Simba was doing and even more so that someone like him had found their way back into her life again, but she felt guilty make her problems his problems.

"It's ok. Is uh... well... what's wrong?" Simba said, trying to stand up and felt her pull him back down and continuing to embrace him.

"Everything" Alana said with a depressed sigh. "I just need to get away from this place. It's driving me crazy" Alana said, standing up and looking out towards the grasslands.

"We can leave tomorrow morning if that's ok with you" Simba said, hoping that if her leaving sooner would help her at all.

"You're in no condition to travel. Let alone fight" Alana said, knowing that until he got better leaving wouldn't be an option.

"Your majesty I can assure you that-" "I'm not going to lose you!" Alana yelled in anger whilst shooting up, cutting Simba off and startling him. Alana gave him a stern look before slowly realizing what she had done, and felt bad for yelling at him when he did nothing wrong.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that, but you're not ready to travel. You need to give yourself time to heal" Alana said, not wanting Simba to further hurt himself on the journey to the pride lands.

"It's ok... I... Well... Not sure how to say this really" Simba said with a chuckle and watched as Alana gave him a curious look. "Well... I guess what I'm saying is I'm tired of people underestimating me. I get that people don't want me to get hurt, but I know my limits and I know when to stop" Simba said, not knowing what to call that feeling.

"I... I don't know what you're capable of. Just looking at you leaves me with endless questions. But not everyone is like you, so it's not normal for someone to pass out from blood loss and then want to travel twelve hours the next day" Alana said, wanting him to understand.

"I know" Simba said, looking down. "My sisters are that way with me" Simba said, chuckling a little and looking over to see that Alana wanting to hear more. "I used to sneak out at like three in the morning to work out because every time I did it when they were around the feared I was working myself too hard and I would hurt my heart or something" Simba said, chuckling at how ridiculous the idea sounded. "So they got creative and piled on top of me when I would sleep so I can't leave without waking them up" Simba said smiling, remember all the tricks the girls would use to get their way.

"And do you mind?" Alana asked, wondering if he found their methods of prevention to be annoying.

"Not really. I mean... I don't want to sound creepy but this is really going to sound creepy... or like wrong... or something... but I kinda like sleeping with them. They just help me fall asleep" Simba said, hoping what he said wasn't wrong.

Simba heard Alana chuckle and looked over to see she had a smile on her face. "I get what you mean" Alana said, smiling at the idea. "Do you ever sleep with Ariya?" Alana asked, wondering if anything was going on between the two of them. Alana knew that Simba's mate was Nala, but Simba let Ariya get away with things that only a mate would normally do, confusing her.

"Well... I've taken a few naps with her but she usually sleeps by herself" Simba said, always noticing that Ariya slept by herself in a private area in Pride Rock.

"Does she get along well with everyone?" Alana asked, wondering if there was a reason behind her being alone.

"Yea, of course" Simba said, wondering how Alana wondered if Ariya could be on anyone's bad side.

"Have the two of you ever... kissed?" Alana asked with a smile, watching as Simba wore a nervous look.

"No" Simba said with a nervous chuckle. "We're just friends" Simba said, wondering why Alana thought they may have been something more.

"Not even a little peck?" Alana asked, teasing Simba further.

"Nope. Nothing even close to anything like that. The only thing we've ever done is nuzzle" Simba said, wondering why she was asking these questions all of a sudden.

"You do know the formal way to great a princess right?" Alana said continuing to tease him. Alana watched as Simba slumped over further making her smile more.

"Yea. Sarafina taught me but Ariya told me it was unnecessary" Simba said, confused why she wouldn't drop the subject.

"Do you know why greetings like those exist?" Alana asked, wondering if Sarafina explained there meaning.

"No" Simba said, not having know there was a meaning behind them, thinking of them simply as gestures.

Simba watched as Alana stood up and walked around so that she was in front of him before sitting down in front of him. "How about a quiz" Alana said, knowing that Simba wouldn't refuse her quiz as he had never refused anything she had done before.

"Um... sure" Simba said, not knowing if this was part of deeming himself worthy or just her wanting to mess with him.

"What does this mean?" Alana said, lifting her paw off the ground about an inch with it slightly more forward than her other paw.

"It means you want me to formally greet you" Simba said.

"Good" Alana said. "Now what about this" Alana said, flipping her paw so that the bottom of her paw was facing up. Alana watched as Simba gave her a confused look, and smiled at his cluelessness. "Take my paw" Alana said, giving him a hint. Alana watched as Simba picked up her paw, and Alana guided her paw up to his face, before resting her paw on his cheek. "Permission to inspect" Alana said with a chuckle.

"Oh... I only know greetings" Simba said, wondering how many of these body language things there were, and wondering if he was ever going to have to memorize them.

Alana smiled at Simba, before letting her smile fade and replacing it with a more serious look. "So Nala is your mate?" Alana asked, already knowing the answer but just wanted to get the topic going. Alana watched as Simba gave her a nod and went to continue. "And is she possessive or open when it comes to you?" Alana asked, wondering how Nala was.

"Well she was possessive but I recently kissed a girl and she wasn't mad" Simba said, and watched as Alana wore a smile that told him he just opened the flood gates to an uncomfortable conversation.

"And her name would have been?" Alana said with a smile.

"Tama. She's my sister... or well... she's my sister but she's closer to me then Kula is" Simba said, trying to explain their relationship without telling her anything that Tama wouldn't want her knowing.

"Would you consider yourselves friends, siblings, or mates?" Alana asked, not feeling like Simba was being completely honest with her.

"Siblings" Simba said confidently, wondering why she kept asking questions about his love life and girls.

"Do you think you'll ever have cubs with her?" Alana asked, and watched as Simba wore both a nervous and horrified face.

"No. She's my sister we can't have cubs. Besides, to make a cub, you gotta... yea... which would be cheating and I would never cheat on Nala" Simba said, wondering why Alana would ask such a question.

"Well, she isn't related to you by blood and having cubs isn't cheating" Alana said, finding it funny that his logic was flawed.

"How? I would have to mate with her. You know. Mate. Like... yea... How is that not cheating?" Simba asked, wondering how mating with someone wasn't cheating.

"Well, it depends on the circumstances in which you mated. If it's for fun or reproductive purposes it's ok. And as far as mating goes out of pure love, that would be up to Nala on whether it was ok or not" Alana said, wondering how he didn't know any of this.

"Well... There's this male called Malka and they're sorta in a relationship. Or their friends" Simba said and watched as Alana laughed.

"You are just terrified of having to mate aren't you?" Alana said with a chuckle. Alana watched as Simba wore an embarrassed and nervous look, which just made him look so much cuter than before.

"Well... Yea..." Simba said, wondering how people weren't afraid of the idea of having to mate.

"And I'm going to guess that you aren't aware of the tradition that all newly crowned king participates in?" Alana said and got her answer when she saw that Simba wore a confused face, clearly not knowing what she was talking about. "After a king is crowned, it's tradition that he mate with the resident lionesses of his pride" Alana said and watched as Simba looked ready to just faint right then and there.

"Wait, you mean I'll have to mate with my sisters?" Simba asked, wanting to know if he was understanding her correctly.

"Well, I was more talking about everyone. Nala, Tama, Kula, Sarafina, all your friends' mothers, me, Ariya, Mapenzi, and any other lioness that may join your pride by the time you're king" Alana said, wondering why Sarafina or Mufasa never explained this to him.

"You're kidding me right?" Simba asked, wondering if she was just joking.

"Nope. Ask your father. He'd know" Alana said and watched as Simba looked to be terrified. "Don't worry. It's ok to break tradition and that won't be for a while. Why do you get some sleep" Alana said, looking behind Simba and seeing that Sarafina was making her way towards them with a smile, most likely wanting to talk, before hiding behind a rock so Simba wouldn't see her.

"Goodnight" Simba said, turning around and walking away not wanting to have any part of that conversation anymore.

Alana looked over towards Sarafina to see that she was up from her hiding spot and walking towards her. "He sure is interesting" Alana said with a smile and watched as Sarafina chuckled a little.

"He's just... well... I have no doubt in my mind that Simba is going to make an excellent king but I just fear that his shyness will be his weakness" Sarafina said, wishing Simba could be more confident and overall just act as a normal male would.

"Agreed, but I like his shyness" Alana said, earning a curious look form Sarafina. "It's not every day that a young adolescent male shows a lioness the respect she deserves. Many of them nowadays just boss us around" Alana said and watched as Sarafina smiled.

"You should see what he'll let the girls get away with" Sarafina said, smiling as she thought back to all the times he submitted to there various methods of masculine torture.

"He wishes to leave tomorrow. I do as well but he's in no condition to travel" Alana said, changing the subject as she remembered back to the conversation she had with Simba.

"It's up to you. Simba wouldn't be willing to travel if he wasn't sure that he could protect us. I'm not even sure what Simba's capable of doing, to be honest. I've seen him do incredible stuff but it still looks as if he's holding back or saving something for some last resort. The only person who knows what he's capable of is Simba, so if he thinks he ready... then I support him" Sarafina said, and watched as Alana wore a conflicted face.

"I'll think about it. I just-" Alana said and then suddenly choked on a lump in her throat, and watched as Sarafina gave her both a serious and caring face. "He's just Important to me. I don't know how I let myself get so attached to someone so quickly but I did, and I just don't want him to get hurt... I almost feel the same way with him as I do my daughters" Alana said, not knowing what to think.

"Alana" Sarafina said with a smile and watched as she looked at her. "No one on this planet could kill Simba" Sarafina said, knowing that Simba would know a fight he couldn't win when he saw one.

"Thanks" Alana said with a smile, before looking out towards the grasslands. "Let's get some sleep. We're going to have a long day ahead of us" Alana said with a smirk and watched as Sarafina gave her a smile and a victorious look.

With that, the two lionesses made their way back down to the cave, awaiting the long day and wondering what danger and challenges tomorrow would face them with...

 **Returning to the pride lands... Hopefully no one dies or this would have all just been a big waste of time. Anyway like with the last few chapters nothing to say her so y'all have a good one. Mr_Toast out!**


	22. Home

**Simba's Pain Chapter 22**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Discord: Mr_Toast#1679**

 **Story Discord: bit .ly /SimbasPain**

 **Not sure why I even write anything here anymore since this story is not 22 chapters long so this is the intro, also thanks to the people the write supportive comments and make this story look more popular so I can rub it into other peoples faces easier, with that said, Enjoy!**

Simba woke up when he felt someone gentle nudge into him, and looked up to Sarafina standing in front of him with a smile. Simba groaned as he rolled over too tired to get up and felt Sarafina lay down next to him and wrap him up in a hug which seemed to be her new go-to thing now.

"Morning" Sarafina said as she licked the top of Simba's head, knowing well enough that he was awake but just too lazy to get up. Sarafina felt Simba snuggled his face into her chest to shield his eyes from the light and smiled at his reaction.

"Very well, I guess your sisters will just have to wait another day" Sarafina said with a sigh and watched as Simba looked up at her with a confused face, and she smiled down at him when she saw he realized what she meant.

"Queen Alana wants to leave today?" Simba asked surprised that Alana would be willing to leave after what she said to him last night. Simba watched as Sarafina nodded, and Simba began to stand up, before stumbling and falling over feeling dizzy.

Simba looked over to see that Sarafina was making her way over to him with a concerned look on her face wondering what was wrong, and Simba began to stand up and was able to do it this time.

"Everything alright?" Sarafina asked, both surprised and concerned that he suddenly fell over like that.

"Yea, just stood up a little fast" Simba said, wondering why he felt a little dizzy and tired after having slept all night long with no incident.

"Just remember, you've had it hard these past few days. Just take it easy" Sarafina said, knowing that Simba would be fine but just wanted to remind him to not push himself too hard.

"Yea" Simba said, walking over towards the mouth of the den and looking out to see that Alana was talking to Avana in a secretive manner, most likely transferring queenship and doing that whole process. Simba looked around some more and saw that Ariya was playing with Mapenzi with an unamused look on her face, and Simba went down to see if he couldn't work his magic and cheer her up.

"Morning. Everything alright?" Simba asked with a smile and he approached the two. Simba watched as Ariya looked over at him as if he was some sort of god and savor, most likely bored to death and wanting something else to do then play one of Mapenzi's games.

"Glad to see you've finally woken up sleepy head" Ariya said whilst pushing him lightly, before nuzzling into him.

"Needed all the sleep I could get if I wanted to make today's journey with ease" Simba said, sitting down next to Ariya and watched as Mapenzi started to stalk around the two as if she was hunting them.

"Any idea what they're talking about?" Ariya said, pointing towards Alana and Avana with a sulky look on her face.

"No, Why?" Simba asked, wondering why Ariya looked so sulky.

"Well I tried to find out by my mom says I'm too young to understand and told me to play with Mapenzi" Ariya said, moody that her mother wouldn't tell her.

"Well it looks important and I'm sure it's nothing that concerns us" Simba said, knowing it was probably official business that he didn't need to be apart of or want to be apart of.

"Yea... Just wish I was older" Ariya said, feeling as Mapenzi pounced on her and deflected her once again.

"No fair" Mapenzi said sounding angry.

"Still old enough for you" Ariya said with a laugh, and watched as Mapenzi glared at her.

"What game are you playing?" Simba asked, wondering what Mapenzi was trying to do when she pounced on Ariya who was larger than her.

"Pinned ya, but Ariya keeps cheating" Mapenzi said, giving Ariya a spiteful look.

"Being better isn't cheating" Ariya said, rubbing the top of Mapenzi's head while Mapenzi pushed her paw away.

"Girls, settle down" Alana said as she walked over towards her daughters, smiling at Simba as she approached him.

"But-" "Mapenzi" Alana said with a laugh, cutting Mapenzi off. "Why don't you make sure Aunt Sarafina is all ready to go while I talk to Simba" Alana said and watched as Ariya and Mapenzi got up and made their way towards the royal den.

"How do you feel?" Alana said once Ariya and Mapenzi were far enough away, turning around and placing her paw on his forehead and felt his temperature was normal.

"Fine" Simba said with a smile, reassuring her he was fully capable of making the journey.

"Good" Alana said, walking circles around him as she looked him over.

"So when are we leaving?" Simba asked, knowing that if they wanted to reach the pride lands before night they would need to leave soon.

"When my daughters return with your moth-Aunt" Alana said, slipping but quickly stopping herself before she made Simba uncomfortable.

"Right..." Simba said, knowing that Alana had almost called Sarafina his mother and was embarrassed by that. "She's like my mother, so you can call her that" Simba said, not minding if she did.

"She's nothing like your mother" Alana said with a chuckle and watched as Simba gave her a confused look. "I knew your mother. We grew up together and were very close friends. When I heard that she had... passed... I came down for her death ceremony and I remember seeing you. So small and fragile" Alana said with a smile and watched as Simba looked to be shocked.

"What was I like when you were there" Simba said, wondering if she ever interacted with him at all, and watched as her smile faded and she wore a slight frown.

"Well... confused mostly. It was obvious you wanted your mother but couldn't find her. You kept confusing me and Sarafina as your mothers" Alana said with a chuckle. "I remember holding you in my lap and nursing you for the few days I was there. Helped me with Ariya believe it or not" Alana said with a smile once again.

"Never knew that" Simba said, and looked out over the grasslands. Simba was scanning from side to side to see if there was anything worth noting when he felt Alana brush into the side of him and nuzzle into him under his chin, both confusing and surprising him.

"Um... your majesty?" Simba asked, wondering what Alana was doing. Normally the nuzzling she was doing what more for people who were closer such as good friends or family, and he had only met her two days ago.

"Yes?" Alana said, breaking the nuzzle to look over at Simba.

"Um... Nevermind" Simba said, not wanting to be disrespectful and question what she was doing. Alana knew that Simba was wondering something and was reluctant to ask it, and she was curious as to what he was thinking.

"Simba" Alana said and watched as he gave her an unsure look. "Tell me" Alana asked in a calm voice, not wanting to make it sound like she was forcing him.

"Well... it's just that no one your age has ever nuzzled me like that" Simba said with an awkward chuckle, avoiding eye contact. Simba heard Alana chuckled, and looked over to see that she was wearing a smile and shaking her head.

"Just a comforting nuzzle" Alana said, wondering why Simba had to overcomplicate it. Alana watched as Simba looked back out towards the grasslands and continued to just stare out as if there was something he was trying to look for.

"So" Simba said after looking over the place a few times. "Who's going to run this place when you leave?" Simba asked, looking over at Alana to see that she studying him.

"My sister. Until my son can that is" Alana said, and watched as Simba looked to be confused, making her wonder what was complicated or confusing about what she had said.

"I remember hearing Ariya say something about her friends and her brother. Where are they?" Simba asked, not having seen anyone his age as the only person remotely close to his age was Mapezi and she was a couple of months younger than him, and the older lionesses obviously couldn't have been them.

Simba watched as Alana wore a frown, and realized that this was probably a touchy subject for her. "Well, my son is completing his training to be king with his friends in another location. Due to there insubordination, we had to relocate them to keep them out of trouble" Alana said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Well... what did they do?" Simba asked, wondering what they had done to haft to have been sent away like that.

"Well, my son has this idea that because he is a prince that therefor makes him invincible and no one can touch him. Because of that, he started picking fights he couldn't win, causing unnecessary injuries" Alana said, glad that Simba wasn't like him and knew a fight he could win versus one he couldn't.

"Do you think he'll make a good king?" Simba asked, wondering if she had any faith in his ability to rule.

"I'm not sure, but I'm glad that I won't be around to find out" Alana said, and looked over to see that Simba looked to be a little uncomfortable having asked the question and gotten her answer.

Alana looked past Simba and saw that her daughters were returning with Sarafina in tow, causing her to sit up and approached them, alerting Simba aswell.

"Morning" Sarafina said as she walked up to Alana, and watched as she smiled and nodded her head. "Are you ready, or do you need do you need more time?" Sarafina asked, not wanting to rush Alana as leaving your home could be very stressful and taxing.

"Quite ready" Alana said, having wanted to leave for a long time.

"Well then, Simba" Sarafina said, looking over at him to see that he was staring at her waiting for orders. "Last chance to change your mind" Sarafina said, knowing that he still wanted to go home but just wanted to make sure one last time.

"I'm ready" Simba said, and watched as she smiled at him. Simba watched as Sarafina started walking towards the direction of the trail that would lead them to the outlands and in the direction of the pride lands.

Simba began to follow Sarafina and watched as Alana, Ariya, and Mapenzi walked up beside him, making him realize that since their family was a rather wary and cautious one, they were probably going to be a bit clingy on the way back. Simba noticed that Mapenzi was practically glued to Alana and would probably stay that way as out of the three of them, she was the most vulnerable.

"How long are we going to have to walk" Mapenzi asked Alana, wondering how long it was going to be before they were at the pride lands.

"All day" Alana said, knowing that if they didn't want to have to sleep in the outlands at night they would have to walk all day.

"All day? Isn't there a faster way?" Mapenzi asked, not liking the idea of having to walk all day one bit.

"Unfortunately not" Alana said, knowing that there was a faster way but seeing as it was invested with hyenas who ambushed people trying to fast track around Africa, it wasn't going to be an option.

Alana heard Mapenzi moan but knew that there was nothing she could do and that Mapenzi would just have to suck it up. One day of misery for a lifetime of paradise was well worth it.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

It had been several hours since they had left the Riverside Pride and it was currently the middle of the day, which was also the hottest part. Alana looked over to see that Ariya was keeping up with her and looked over at Mapenzi to see that she wasn't where she normally was and looked behind to see that she was falling behind.

"Come on Mapenzi" Alana said, watching as Mapenzi was practically crawling while the others were walking. This was the fifth time today everyone had to slow down for Mapenzi to catch up and if they wanted to reach the pride lands before sunset they would need to hurry up.

"It's hot and my paws hurt" Mapenzi said, feeling as if she was twice as heavy as she normally was. Alana sighed in annoyance at this as Mapenzi was too big for her to carry and kept slowing them down.

"What are we going to do" Alana said turning over towards Sarafina while Mapenzi caught up. "If she keeps slowing us down we'll have to spend the night here and there isn't any water nearby" Alana said, not seeing any good options for what to do with Mapenzi.

"Simba" Sarafina said, looking over at Simba and giving him a look that told him what he needed to do. Alana was a little confused when Sarafina did this as she wasn't sure what that looked meant, and watched as Simba started to walk towards Mapenzi, kneeled, said something to her and watched as Mapenzi climbed on top of Simba and rested on top of him.

Alana started to walk towards the two a little unhappy that Simba was going to have to carry Mapenzi since she was complaining and slowing them down too much, and didn't want Simba to have to walk through the heat of a desert with a person on his back.

"Alana, let him" Sarafina said, stopping Alana from telling Simba to release Mapenzi. Sarafina watched as Alana gave her a reluctant look, but gave her a look in return that told her he was more then capable of doing this and if he needed a break, he would let them know.

Sarafina watched as Alana sighed before nodded at her and continuing to walk with Simba now caught up with the rest of them.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK) (Ight so I know I skipped practically the entire journey but literally all it would have been was them walking which would have been boring to write and pointless to read)**

After having walked for countless hours, Alana started to notice some familiar mountains in the distance and knew that they were practically in the pride lands now. Alana trotted up the hill they were walking up that was blocking them from seeing what was on the other side, and upon reaching the top, looking out towards a vast majority of the golden hills and plains that made up the pride lands, with Pride Rock at its center.

"Mapenzi" Alana called down, looking back to see that Mapenzi lifted her head off of Simba's neck and looked up at her with a confused look. "We're here" Alana said and watched as Mapenzi jumped off of Simba's back and ran up the hill, taking in the sight of the pride lands.

"Wow..." Mapenzi said, not having any idea what to expect when she saw the pride lands, but know that she had, she was glad she had left home. "Are we going to live here?" Mapenzi said with excitement in her voice and watched as Alana nodded.

"Well Mapenzi, what do you think?" Sarafina said, walking up to Mapenzi and watched as she looked over the pride lands with a huge smile on her face.

"I love it!" Mapenzi said with excitement.

"Ariya" Alana said and watched as her daughter walked up to her. "Why don't you show your sister around. Introduce her to the others" Alana said, and watched as Ariya nodded, before chasing after Mapenzi who took off the second she heard this.

"Well Simba" Sarafina said, looking towards Pride Rock. "They're waiting for you I imagine" Sarafina said and watched as Simba smile, before watching him run off in the direction of Pride Rock, watching as he moved with incredible haste, almost forgetting just how fast he was.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba slowed down to a walk just outside of Pride Rock, having run there as fast as he could on his leg before stopping realizing one thing. Simba wasn't even sure what he was going to say when he saw his sisters again and started to wonder how he was going to show up.

Simba slowly walked up the hill that led into Pride Rock, and stopped just outside the den. Simba quickly glanced in and saw that there were only three people inside. Nala, Tama, and Kula. Simba knew that his father was patrolling right now, the boys were doing whatever they did during the day, and the lionesses were hunting and by the looks of it Nala, Tama, and Kula stayed behind.

Simba slowly entered the den making sure not to make a sound as the three of them were either sleeping or just resting. Simba very carefully walked up to Nala and gentle tapped her with his paw.

Simba watched as Nala grumbled a little before continuing to stay how she was. Simba smiled a little at this and gentle tapped her with his paw again.

"Go away" Nala muttered. Simba smiled a little at this as she probably thought that he was one of the other boys trying to see if they wanted to do something.

"But I just got here" Simba said and could feel as Nala opened her eyes and remained stilled, questioning herself if what she had heard was real. Simba watched as Nala turned over, and for the first time in what felt like forever, Simba was staring into her beautiful blue eyes. Simba watched as something almost appeared to flash across her eyes and knew that it was her realizing that it was him.

"Simba!" Nala screamed, springing up and tackling Simba, drawing him into a passionate kiss. Simba went from standing up to being pinned in less than a second, so when he finally realized what was going on, he returned her kiss.

Tama and Kula looked up after feeling Nala leap away from them and hearing her scream something, and saw something that caused them to freeze for a second...

"Simba!" Tama and Kula yelled in unison, leaping up and running over to him, nuzzling into him for all they were worth.

Simba felt Nala break the kiss before nuzzling into him all over as Tama and Kula were, probably removing the smell of all the strange lionesses he had been around the past few days, replacing it with there own. Simba tried to lean up to better see them, but the second he began to move he felt all three of them push him back down preventing him from moving.

"I miss you guys too" Simba said as he struggled to get up, surprised that they missed him so much since he was only gone for two full days. Simba continued to watch as the girls nuzzled into him, not saying anything or doing anything else but that.

After countless minutes went by, Simba was finally able to push himself up, but the girls were still hugging into him for all they were worth, refusing to let him go. Simba attempted to take a step, and as expected he felt the girls push him back to the ground and pin him there, refusing to let him walk away.

"Girls" Simba heard and looked up at the entrance of the cave to see that Sarafina was standing there with Alana. Simba tried to stand up so he could address the two lionesses but as expected he felt the girls continue to hold him down.

"They're a little-" Simba was saying, before being cut off by a quick kiss from Nala. "Excited" Simba said once he was able to speak again, and saw that Sarafina had an amused face on.

"Girls" Sarafina said, walking up to the four lions of the group and tapping them, trying to get there attention. "There's someone here to meet you" Sarafina said and watched as the girls continued to ignore her and nuzzle into Simba. "Simba" Sarafina said looking down at Simba with 'the look'.

Nala, Tama, and Kula were all nuzzling into Simba with excitement, enjoying his warm and soft fur after having gone two days without it when they felt Simba push of the ground and resisting them as they tried to pull him down, and for the first time broke free. The three girls looked at him with a confused face, before looking over at Sarafina, and then a strange lioness behind her.

"Now that I have your attention, This is Alana. Ariya and Mapenzi's mother. She will be staying here from now on" Sarafina said, introducing them to her.

Realizing that Alana had probably seen their affectionate nuzzle war with Simba, they all stood up slightly embarrassed and nodded their heads. Alana nodded back, before noticing something that she hadn't seen at first. The girls were all pressed up against Simba with Tama and Nala at his side and Kula had her head and body tucked up Simba's chin, which made her smile.

"Well, Alana and I have some other business to attend to so I'll let you get back to your uh... reunion" Sarafina said, not sure what to call their affectionate behavior. Sarafina watched as all the girls nodded their heads and began to exit the cave with Alana in tow, giving her a look that told her they were going to stick around for a few seconds longer.

Upon turning the corner and out of the adolescents' sight, Sarafina and Alana quickly glanced back to see the three girls tackle Simba back to the ground and continued to nuzzle him with everything they had. Sarafina looked over at Alana with a smile, and Alana returned her smile before the two of them continued on their way and left the adolescents alone.

Simba felt the three girls tackle him back down as soon as Sarafina and Alana left, and Simba began to slowly stand up, resisting them as they tried to pull him back down.

"Come on guys" Simba said as he felt them continue to pull him back down.

"No" Nala said, having been the first thing she said beside his name since he arrived.

"Yes" Simba said, pulling her up to him and hugging her, and felt her nuzzle into the side of his neck with a purr.

"Your arm..." Simba heard, feeling one of them picked his arm up and then realized that they had finally seen his new would, and knew that they were going to start looking him over for other wounds and would find all the other scatches and scapes.

Simba felt Nala break the hug and looked down at his arm to see multiple claw marks running from his elbow to his knee, and looked up at him with a face that demanded answers.

"These lions were harassing the Riverside Pride but I handled it" Simba said with a smile and watched as the three girls all gave him annoyed looks for getting hurt.

"Simba..." Kula said, dropping his arm and nuzzling into his neck.

"Sorry" Simba said in a sarcastic voice, and then felt as Kula nipped the side of his neck, not finding his humor funny. "What?" Simba said, trying to break apart the whole serious mood and return them to their nuzzling attitude which he preferred much more.

"We were worried" Tama said, wondering how Simba didn't know that.

"I know but I'm back and everything is ok" Simba said, wondering why it was so hard for them to just be happy.

"Can I talk to you... alone" Tama said, looking over at Nala to see that she had a reluctant look, but nodded after Tama gave her a pleading look.

"Yes" Simba said, hearing how she said it more like a command than a request. Simba gentle pried Kula off of him feeling as she was reluctant to let go but finally let go. Simba followed Tama out of pride rock and nuzzled into Nala on the way out, following her up to the top where the two of them said goodbye when he left.

"Simba..." Tama said turning around and abruptly stopping him. "We missed you" Tama said looking up into his eyes. "I missed you..." Tama said, pressing herself into him.

"I missed you too" Simba said, feeling as she pressed into him and had a good idea about what was going to happen.

"I was worried. I was afraid something was going to happen to you and I wasn't going to be able to do something about it. And now you come in here and act like nothing is at all wrong. Simba, I've spent the last two days doing nothing but worry. Do you have any idea how it feels for you to come back hurt and then tell me not to worry?" Tama asked sounding hurt.

"No" Simba said, sounding a little guilty.

"God Simba" Tama said sighing, resting her head on his neck. "I hate when you do that" Tama said, confusing Simba.

"What?" Simba asked, confused by what Tama meant.

"When... nevermind" Tama said with a chuckle. "I love you" Tama said nuzzling into him, happy that Simba came back ok so that she could tell him that.

"I love you too" Simba said, nuzzling into Tama.

"Um..." Tama said and felt as Simba moved a little and looked down at her with a confused face. "Wanna... Kiss?" Tama said, and immediately cringed the second it left her mouth, not knowing why she asked him this time unlike all the other time and now that she did ask it was awkward.

"It's up to you" Simba said with a chuckle and watched as Tama slowly leaned up towards him, and stopped when her muzzle was hoving just in front of his, hesitating slightly. Tama felt Simba move forward and draw her into a kiss, in which she quickly returned before trying to pull away, but felt Simba hold her in place and continue the kiss. Tama was stiff at first, but slowly began to relax into Simba's arms and lean into him letting him support her weight.

Tama was enjoying the kiss and thinking of slipping her tongue into his mouth when she felt him break the kiss and pull back, but not let her go. Tama looked up at Simba with an embarrassed look, wondering why she was embarrassed and watched as he smiled at her.

"You need more practice" Simba said with a chuckle, noting how Nala was a much better and more relaxed kisser than Tama.

"Well I don't have a teacher unless you want to teach me" Tama said, before quickly realizing what she said. "I mean you don't haft to I'm just saying I don't have a regular kissing partner and it shouldn't be you" Tama said quickly, and watched as Simba laughed a bit.

"Well... As long as Nala doesn't mind I'll teach you. Meet me here tonight" Simba said, giving her a quick peck on the lips before breaking their hug and returning to Nala and Kula leaving a very confused but excited Tama behind.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Nala and Kula were sitting inside Pride Rock waiting for Simba to return and jumped up when they saw him round the corner.

"How'd it go?" Kula asked, glad to see Simba was still in one piece.

"Good" Simba said, nuzzling into the two of them. "Um, Kula..." Simba said and felt her break her nuzzle and look up at him slightly prepared for bad news. "Um... Could we move the whole stargazing thing to tomorrow? Something came up with Tama" Simba whispered into her ear so Nala wouldn't hear even though she already knew.

"Sure. Chumvi and I already had plans" Kula said, glad that it worked out. Kula watched as Simba smiled and nodded at her, before nuzzling into her again.

"So Kula, Mind if I steal my lion for a few?" Nala asked, and watched as Kula gave her a nod.

"I should get going anyway" Kula said turning around and walking away, before pausing and looking back. "Save me a spot tonight" Kula said, turning back around and walking away.

"Save her a spot?" Simba asked, and watched as Nala chuckled a little.

"She wants to sleep with us and doesn't want someone stealing her normal spot" Nala said, licking Simba's nose.

"Ah" Simba said, kissing Nala gently. "I love you" Simba said with a smile.

"I love you too" Nala said, kissing him deeply and sliding her tongue into his mouth. The two stayed that way for a while, only separating for air before Simba finally broke the kiss to ask her a question.

"So..." Simba said, unsure how to ask his girlfriend for permission to teach another girl how to kiss. "Um... So Tama wanted some practice kissing and I was wondering if I might be able to help her..." Simba asked, and watched as Nala wore a smile.

"Hmm" Nala said in a sarcastic tone. "Ok" Nala said and watched as Simba wore a smile. "But only if you meet me at your hideout when you're done" Nala said. "I've got a surprise for you" Nala said, licking the side of his face before walking away to his hideout to prepare her surprise.

Simba wondered what the surprise was, and wanted to follow her to find out, but knew that Nala wouldn't be happy if he did and that Tama was still at the top of Pride Rock waiting for him.

Simba trotted up to the top of Pride Rock to see something that made him stop and stare. Tama was lying on her back and flailing her paws in the air daydreaming about something which brought a smile to his face.

"Tama" Simba said as he approached her, and watched as she quickly rolled over and acted as nothing happened.

"Back already?" Tama asked, standing up and walking over to him, before stopping and sitting down in front of him.

"Yea" Simba said, taking a seat in front of her. "Ok so... what do you want to do?" Simba asked, and watched as her eyes lit up, and knew that she was going to be a handful.

"Well... I kinda wanna know what it feels like to have a tongue in my mouth" Tama said, and watched as Simba gave her an amused look.

"Ok" Simba said, confident he'd be able to do that.

"Also I want to do very gentle kissing" Tama said, surprising Simba. "What?" Tama asked with a chuckle as Simba gave her a surprised face.

"Nothing" Simba said chuckling a bit himself. "I just never thought you'd be into like... gentle kissing" Simba said, imagining that Tama would be into more passionate, deep, and rough kisses.

"Well... you can start" Tama said, watching as Simba gave her a playfully annoyed look. Tama watched as Simba slowly leaned down and drew her into a kiss, and Tama felt Simba rest his tongue at her lips and teeth and opened her mouth to feel Simba gracefully slip his tongue in and roam around, causing her to lean into him as she felt her legs go weak and began to purr loudly. Simba was surprised by her reactions and had to suppress a chuckle when she did that and felt her starting to fight his tongue with her own, and before Simba realized it he and Tama's tongues were dancing around each other.

Tama was enjoying the moment all too much when she began to feel Simba pull away, and chased him back to prevent him from breaking the kiss but her efforts were short-lived as she was unable to escape his hug. Tama opened her eyes to see that Simba was both chuckling and smiling at her, confusing her about what was so funny.

"A little excited?" Simba said with a chuckle and watched as Tama gave him a playful glare.

"It's been two days since you left and it isn't every day I get to do this" Tama said, resting her face into his soft neck. Simba felt Tama began to purr which brought another smile to his face, resting the top of his head on hers.

"I know. It's just last time you were uncomfortable when it came to kissing me" Simba said, and felt Tama stop purring and look up at him. Simba feared that by what he said he may have triggered some emotional eruption within her and would be spending the next hour trying to calm her down.

"I know but Nala doesn't seem to mind" Tama said, leaning up and placing a gentle kiss on his muzzle. Tama felt Simba barely start to return her kiss when she began to pull away, making her smile at how he wasn't fast enough.

"Surprisingly not" Simba said, feeling as Tama pushed him over and laid down next to him. Simba looked down at Tama and felt her shift over so that she was pressed up against him and began to make herself comfortable, before finally tucking her face into his neck as if she were ready to go to sleep. Upon doing this, Simba felt Tama release a satisfying sigh and felt her nuzzle deep into his coat, releasing purrs every now and then.

"What are you doing?" Simba asked chuckling, never having seen her act so playful or lovey before.

"Remembering how good this feels" Tama asked, scootching away from him before laying up. Tama watched as Simba did the same, and smiled at him before licking his cheek.

"Well Nala has restricted us from visiting your hideout since you left saying she has some surprise, so I guess I'll let her entice you with that" Tama said, standing up and stretching out.

"She mentioned something about that" Simba said, standing up and receiving a nuzzle from Tama. Simba touched his forehead against Tamas and felt her do the same, staying still for a second before backing up and beginning to walk towards his hideout, wondering what this surprise would be.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was making his way towards his hideout being able to see where it was but not inside of it and wondered what surprise Nala had in store for him. Seeing as she didn't want the other adolescents going near it, it was probably something big.

Simba slowly entered his hideout, poking just his head in first and was confused to see that everything was exactly how it always was and furthermore, Nala wasn't inside. Simba fully entered inside his hideout and began to look around to see if Nala was hiding, but didn't see her anywhere, making him wondering what the surprise was and why she made him come here.

"Simba" Nala said, clearing her voice to get his attention. Simba turned around at the sound of her voice and was left speechless at what he saw...

Nala was standing before Simba with what had to be the cleanest and most well-groomed fur she had ever had with the sunset being behind her making her coat reflect golden rays of sunlight with a red rose tucked behind her ears, wearing a gorgeous smile and sitting it an upright posture. Nala chuckled a little when she watched as Simba just stared at her, still frozen from when he first laid eyes on her.

"Simba?" Nala asked, wondering if he had stopped working all of a sudden. Nala slowly approached after not getting a response and sat down in front of him, watching as he had moved his head when following her but other than that he hadn't done anything. "How do I look?" Nala said, flashing him a smile.

"You're hot..." Simba said with a dreamy smile, and immediately realized what he said and began to tense up. "I mean uh... you look good tonight and that it's hot outside and because of that you look a little hot from being in the sun" Simba said, managing not to stutter at all.

"You're so adorable when you're nervous" Nala said, kissing him and being able to taste Tamas saliva in his mouth, which if her plan went right wouldn't be there for much longer.

"I uhh..." Simba said, not know what to say before finally realizing that he dug himself into a hole he couldn't get out, and gave into her teasing. "Yea" Simba said, knowing surrender was the only option.

"You're too cute" Nala said, kissing him again but this time for longer. Nala broke the kiss and leaned into Simba, causing the two to fall over and Nala pinning Simba.

"When was the last time we did this?" Nala asked, gently setting herself down onto Simba's chest and licking the underside of his chin.

"Awhile" Simba said, knowing that it had to be at least a few weeks since they last had a romantic cuddle session.

"Well... Never too late to have another" Nala said, rolling over and laying down next to him so she could look him in the eyes. "But first" Nala said, shifting over so she was pressed up against him. "I wanna talk about Tama" Nala said with a smile and watched as Simba dropped his smile and wore a bit of a concerned face.

"Uhh... yea" Simba said, knowing that at some point Nala was going to want to talk to him about it and understand what was happening.

"I know you love me and only me like a mate, so do me a favor and don't let me catch you two" Nala said with a smile and watched as Simbas expression went from being concerned to confused.

"Wait... so you don't want us to stop?" Simba asked, a little surprised that Nala took that so well and she was ok with it.

"No. The last thing I need is for Tama to be moody all day" Nala said with a chuckle, kissing Simba's muzzle.

"Well between you and me" Simba said, rolling over and pinning her while resting his paw on her right ear. "You're a much better kisser" Simba said, leaning down and kissing her, feeling her both return the kiss and purr.

Simba kissed Nala for what felt like a while, before feeling her suddenly flip the two of them over and looked up to see Nala wearing a smile. Nala rolled off of him and placed her back so that it was against his body, and felt him reach around her body and pull in her, resting his head on top of hers.

"Will you marry me?" Simba said, and felt as Nala grew a little stiff, before turning around and looking him in the eyes.

"Of course" Nala said, kissing him gently before snuggling into his arms. Simba released a relieved sigh, glad to see she had excepted his request and was a little surprised she was so calm about it. Simba wasn't sure what to say back to her, and after thinking a little, decided to just leave it at that.

"When do you want to go back?" Nala asked after resting in his arms for a few minutes before turning around so she could look at him.

"Whenever you want to" Simba said, not caring how long they stayed outside so long as she was happy.

"God. Sometimes I hate it when you're trying to be nice" Nala said, licking the side of his face.

"It just doesn't matter to me what we do" Simba said, knowing that he'd be happy so long as he was with her.

"Well then, how was the Riverside Pride?" Nala asked, wanting to know how his stay was seeing as he was sporting a few scapes and cuts he didn't leave with.

"Good despite the fact they hate males" Simba said with a chuckle and watched as Nala wore a confused face. "They didn't do this to me" Simba said, motioning to the cut on his arm.

"I know" Nala said, a little sad that he had to spend two days with a pride that didn't want him around. "So, anyone worth noting you met other than Ariyas family?" Nala asked, wondering if he had made any new friends.

"Just a few really small cubs" Simba said, and watched as Nala shifted a little before sitting up, and Simba followed her lead. "What?" Simba said, wondering why she had gotten up.

"If we had a cub, what would you name it?" Nala asked, wondering if Simba had given it any thought. Nala watched as Simba wore a confused face, before blankly looking around trying to come up with something.

"Uh... It depends on if it was a girl or a boy" Simba said after not being able to come up with a name. Simba watched as Nala chuckled a little, making him realize she knew he hadn't given it any thought.

"Well how about this. If we ever have cub and its a girl, I'll name it and if it's a boy you can name it. Until then I would think of something" Nala said, and watched as Simba smiled at her.

"Do you want a cub?" Simba asked, sounding a little unsure which Nala picked up on.

"Of course. Don't you?" Nala asked, wondering if Simba was thinking against the idea of ever having a cub. Nala watched as Simba wore a bit of a conflicted face, making her start to worry.

"Well... Yea but... It can be a lot of work" Simba said lying and knew he had done a good job since Nala dropped her worried look and wore a smile.

"Please Simba. Even if having a cub is a lot of work we'll have each other the entire time and it will all be worth it in the long run" Nala said, licking his nose.

"I know" Simba said, licking her cheek.

"Well... I'm going back to Pride Rock now" Nala said, taking the rose out from under her ear so she wouldn't get curious looks when she went back and started to walk away.

"Well, I haven't done by daily roaming in a few days so better late than never" Simba said a he turned around, wanting to think about something. With that, Simba turned around and walked out of his hideout, and started walking down a trail.

Upon entering the trail, Simba heard a noise from the opposite side of the trail just beyond the bush and wondered who was either spying on him or hiding from him this time.

"If you want to follow me the only thing I'll be doing is walking" Simba said in the direction of the noise, and began to walk down the trail listening for queues that he was being followed.

"Wasn't following you" A voice said, and Simba turned around. "Red mane" Jason said, stepping out of the bush.

"Then why are you hiding in the bush?" Simba asked, walking over towards Jason wondering what he was up to.

"In case it hadn't been you that walked through the bush. Don't forget who I am" Jason said with a chuckle, knowing he had to be careful in lion infested territory.

"Right" Simba said, looking past Jason to see a lion making their way towards them. "Great..." Simba muttered and watched as Jason turned around. At this point, running was useless as the lion had already seen Simba, so Jason was going to have to rely on Simbas negotiating skills to get him out of this one.

Upon getting closer, Simba was able to tell that the lion was Sarafina and felt a little better, but still knew she was going to be suspicious and unsettled that he was near a hyena.

"Simba" Sarafina said as she walked up to him, eyeing Jason as she walked passed him. "What are you doing?" Sarafina asked, wondering what business Simba had with Jason.

"We ran into each other so we're just talking" Simba said, hoping Sarafina wouldn't make a big deal about it.

"Well say your goodbyes. We need to talk" Sarafina said, and upon saying this she watched as Jason turned around and walked away, not wanting any part of their conversation.

"About what?" Simba asked when Jason was far enough away.

"You and Tama" Sarafina said, turning around to face him and watched as he had a slightly deflated look on his face. Sarafina knew that Simba had an idea of where this was going and felt a little remorse for him, but this wasn't a time she could coddle him.

"Yea..." Simba said, unsure of what to say. Simba knew Sarafina had probably found out someone and was going to be furious at him for cheating on her daughter like that even though that wasn't his intention.

"I've just learned of what happened not too long ago" Sarafina said and watched as Simba released a sigh and slouched over a little.

"Yea..." Simba said, still unsure of what to say. Right now Sarafina seemed to be calm but then again she could just be started and could blow at any moment.

"Why are you... kissing and cuddling with her?" Sarafina said, wondering why Simba was getting himself entangled in a situation that would only lead to drama, heartbreak, and trust issues between him and Nala.

"I don't know" Simba said, looking down and fiddling with his paws. "She just seems to be under a lot of stress and when I do those things with she seems to be happy" Simba said, thinking of that as the only reason he ever did that stuff with her.

"Simba" Sarafina said, sounding serious. "Tama needs to find her lover. To be honest she's probably already found him. Malka. Whether she knows it or not the two of them will eventually become mates" Sarafina said, and watched as Simba shook his head.

"Tama doesn't want him. I've asked her. I've tried. She only thinks of him as a friend" Simba said, and watched as Sarafina chuckled in annoyance.

"Simba you need to see the larger picture. Tama might not love you like Nala does now, but believe me, she is falling in love with you. And once she does, all hell will break loose between Nala and her" Sarafina said, hoping Simba would gently push Tama aside for her own sake.

"Nala doesn't care. So long as she doesn't have to see us" Simba said and watched as Sarafina sighed in frustration.

"You clearly have no idea about the game you're playing. They'll fight over you. Compete for your attention. They'll be at each other throats for the rest of time so long as you're around if you continue this" Sarafina said.

"I wouldn't allow that to happen. Now Tama may fall in love with me and if she does that's fine by me. She knows well enough that I will never love her the same way as I love Nala. So if Tama wants to fall in love with me then fine, that's her call. But she knows that if she does she'll have to live with the fact I won't return her feeling. The same goes for any other girl. If they wanna kiss, cuddle, or sleep with me then they can, but that doesn't mean I love them" Simba said, getting up in Sarafina's face.

"She's blinded by love. She'll forget that and expect you to return her feelings" Sarafina said, wanting him to understand how teenage girls thought when their emotions were affecting them.

"I can't argue with you like this. You don't understand her. You've never seen her when she opens up to you. She a sweet, caring, loving lioness that has feelings and can think for herself. I know she comes across as negative and moody but the truth is she's only ever that way when other people are around. If I were to just push her aside then I might as well do her a favor and kill her. She might not admit it but she needs me. She won't open up to anyone else and when emotions build up inside you, it's only a matter of time before they're forced to be released and that's when she'll snap. So I'm not leaving her. And there's nothing you can do about that. I'm faithful to Nala. I just asked her to marry me and she excepted. I would never cheat on her despite what my relationship with Tama looks like" Simba said, walking past Sarafina to return to Pride Rock but was stopped by her as he walked by.

"You purposed to Nala?" Sarafina asked in shock, all signs of frustration and anger gone.

"Yes. And she's waiting for me back at Pride Rock and I'd not like to keep her waiting" Simba said, turning around and walking away, not wanting to deal with this anymore.

"Simba please" Sarafina said, nuzzling into him and coddling him slightly. Seeing as the harsher and sterner approached had failed, she was going to try to motherly and coddling approach instead.

"Auntie, no matter what you say I won't give up on her. I would never do anything to hurt your daughter and I'm well aware of the risks" Simba said, returning her nuzzle.

"Just... Please be careful. Please" Sarafina said, holding Simba still and she said that. Sarafina watched as Simba gave her a slightly confused face, before realizing that she was holding him in place and let go. "Sorry" Sarafina said, sorry that she got carried away there.

"I will" Simba said, attempting to turn around but felt Sarafina pull him back and hug him.

"I love you Simba" Sarafina said as she began to cry into Simba's shoulder, both shocking and concerning him. Simba stood still for a few moments as he felt her cry into his shoulder, once again being unsure as to what he should do for her.

"I love you too" Simba said, nuzzling into her and feeling as she began to calm down, making him wonder why she had a short but sudden breakdown.

"I'm sorry. I just... I don't like not being in control. Ever since now you guys have always listened to me no matter what but you're growing up and I can't control you guys anymore" Sarafina said, fearing that something bad would happen all because she could keep peace and order.

"I'm a protector. Not a fighter. Don't worry. Nothing bad will happen so long as I'm here" Simba said, and watched as she smiled at him.

Simba watched as Sarafina continued to smile at him, before watching her smile fade and watched as she looked at him like she was sad or upset, making him wonder what was wrong.

"Everything ok?" Simba asked, knowing that Sarafina might listen to him and accept his help. Upon saying this, Simba watched as Sarafina leaned forward and licked the top of his head, telling him exactly where this was going. Simba felt Sarafina push him over and wrap him in a protective hug, starting to groom the top and sides of his face.

"Um... Hello..." Simba and Sarafina heard and looked up to see Alana standing in front of them with a curious look on her face.

"Uh... Hi" Simba said, not sure why Alana was here or what she was going to say about their little moment.

"Quite a day am I right?" Alana said, laying down next to Simba and Sarafina.

"Yea" Simba said, leaning up so he was laying down between the two. Simba watched as Alana looked over at him and could tell by the way she was looking at him that she wanted to ask a question but was still being all polite and respectful since she still felt like a guest.

"So" Alana said and watched as Simba gave her an uncomfortable look, telling her she was making the situation weird. "Anywhere, in particular, I'm allowed to sleep in the den, or not allowed to sleep?" Alana asked, wanting to make sure that she didn't upset anyone on her first day back.

"You can sleep with me and the other lionesses" Sarafina said, knowing that they always had extra room in their spot inside Pride Rock.

"Great. Well I'm going to go check on Ariya and Mapenzi and make sure everything is alright with those two" Alana said, nuzzling into Simba as she stood up and began to walk towards Pride Rock.

"I'm sorry" Simba said once Alana was out of range. "I didn't mean to be rude to you tonight. I just wanted you to understand why I have the relationship I do with Tama" Simba said as he got up, and was surprised to see Sarafina wearing a smile.

"I know. Just... I trust that you know what you're doing" Sarafina said as she got up, licking the top of his head. "I'll be at Pride Rock if you need me" Sarafina said, nuzzling into Simba before turning around and making her way back to Pride Rock.

Simba watched Sarafinas retreating figure before hearing a twig snap behind him and turned around to see Kula walking towards him making him wonder how he kept bumping into people. First Jason then Sarafina and now Kula.

"Hey" Kula said as she playfully nuzzled under his chin.

"Hey" Simba said, returning her gesture and began to follow her as she started to walk past him in the direction of Pride Rock.

"You ready for bed?" Kula asked, and watched as Simba gave her a slightly confused look.

"I guess? Were you waiting for me?" Simba asked as he gave her a small smile, knowing she was expecting a spot with him tonight.

"Maybe" Kula said as she playfully collided with him.

"Thought so" Simba said as he recoiled back after Kula bumped into him.

"You ready for tomorrow?" Kula asked with a hint of excitement in her voice.

"What's happening tomorrow?" Simba said, wondering what she was referring to and why she sounded so excited about it.

"An entire day of relaxing and having fun. Don't think that just because you came back late tonight doesn't mean we don't have anything in store for you" Kula said and watched as Simba gave her an unsure look, wondering if their definition of fun and relaxing was the same as his.

"Oh stop it" Kula said, bumping into him again, before trotting off towards Pride Rock leaving Simba behind. Simba watched as she trotted away wondering what sorts of masculine torture she and her sisters had in store for him tomorrow.

With that, Simba continued to walk towards Pride Rock, ready to get a goods night sleep and be able to get back to his normal daily routine for the first time in what felt like forever.

 **Yea... I know it took me a while but at least it's here. So hopefully next chapter will be out within a week since I got some vacation time and will be able to write. Catch Y'all later, Mr_Toast out!**


	23. Long Live The King

**Simba's Pain Chapter 23**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Discord: Mr_Toast#1679**

 **Story Discord: bit .ly /SimbasPain**

 **Ight so It's November 6th, 2019 right now. I'll put a date in the outro thingy to see how long this took me lol. Anyway thanks to everyone who left a review or PM about the chapter. Oh, by the way, I know that I originally wrote that Ariya didn't have a sister and that she had never seen a cub Mheetus age... Well, that was true at the time and I changed my mind now but am too lazy to fix it so just deal with it. Also, the story is now at 23k views and I'll post the updated number in the outro when I'm done but thanks for that, and as always, Enjoy!**

Simba slowly began to wake up after having traveled all of yesterday and then having to deal with three possessive lionesses to feel groggy and tired. Simba felt like just closing his eyes again and going back to sleep but knew that his father probably had some lesson to teach him and Sarafina wouldn't want him sleeping all day.

Simba attempted to lean up and look around to see who was still awake, but upon doing so felt something weighing him down. Simba fully opened his eyes and began to look around to see Nala in his arms, Tama on top of him preventing him from moving, and Kula resting in his back also preventing him from moving at all.

Simba chuckled upon seeing how they had all strategically positioned themselves to prevent him from possibly escaping. Simba gentle tapped Tama to see if she would be willing to let him up since she was the only one preventing him from moving. Upon doing this, Simba watched as she slowly opened her eyes and met his gaze, only to open them fully and lift her head off of his neck.

"Morning" Simba said once he saw that she was cognitive. Simba heard her mumble something which sounded like 'morning' before closing her eyes and placing her head back down on his neck to go back to sleep. Simba smiled a little as she did this, and moved his head so her head would fall off forcing her to wake up.

"What" Tama groaned, wondering why Simba wouldn't let her sleep.

"Mind if I get up?" Simba asked, knowing what she was going to say no but thought that he might as well ask anyway.

"Yes" Tama said, not wanting him to wander off and leave her with no other choice but to track him down.

"Please" Simba asked, and watched as Tama shook her head and went to rest her head on his neck again to go back to sleep. Knowing that she wasn't going to let him up anytime soon, Simba did the only thing he could do and knew he was going to wake up Nala and Kula in the process.

Simba pushed himself off the ground and stood him, causing all three girls to roll off of him in the process hearing multiple groans as they were abruptly awoken. Upon doing this, Simba looked down to see the three of them getting up and knew they were going to try and prevent him from leaving, and even if he did successfully leave he was going to be followed around all day.

"Morning" Simba said to all of them with humor in his voice as they all shot him subtle glares. Simba leaned down and gave Nala her morning kiss and felt her quickly kiss him before pulling away, telling him she wasn't happy about him waking her up so early.

"Aww come on" Simba said pulling Nala into a hug slightly against her will. "Don't be like that" Simba said, and felt Nala sigh before nuzzling into him. Simba released her and watched as she stretched out and yawned, making him wonder why the girls were so tired.

"Why are you guys so tired?" Simba said, watching as Kula collapsed into him and began to purr when he lifted her and supported her.

"We waited for you all last night until a few hours before sunrise" Tama said, only haven gotten a few hours of sleep that night.

"Well then go back to bed" Simba said, wondering why they were trying to stay awake when they were so tired.

"We don't trust you" Nala said, knowing that as soon as they went back to sleep Simba was going to wander off and then be impossible to find.

"I'm not going to sneak off all day. I just want to make sure that my dad or aunt doesn't have anything planned for me before I goof off all day" Simba said, and earned three untrustful looks. "I promise that as soon as I'm done I'll come right back and tell you the news. I won't sneak off or do anything else besides go directly to them and come straight back when I'm done" Simba said, feeling like he was a young cub trying to convince their parents to let him wander around for a bit.

Simba watched as the three of them continued to look at him with untrustful looks, before finally nodding their heads and laying back down. With that, Simba walked passed them and made his way out of Pride Rock where he looked out across his home glad to finally be back.

Simba began to stretch out after having the girls on top of him all night just as Alana walked up to the den leaving her speechless. Alana watched as all kinds of different muscles flexed and stretched within Simba's legs, chest, stomach, and neck causing her to stare at him in disbelief.

Alana knew Simba was a muscular lion but had never seen him flex before making her wonder just how strong he was. Alana studied the network of veins that ran up his legs and how they rested on top of the muscle in a complex yet organized way.

Simba finished stretching out and looked over to see that Alana was looking at him with wide eyes causing him to freeze. Alana must have noticed Simba stopped moving since it wasn't long after that Alana looked up and made eye contact with him, and then realizing she had been staring this entire time.

"Oh Simba... uh... good morning" Alana said, embarrassed he had caught her staring.

"Morning" Simba said, wondering what Alana was doing since the only people inside the den were him and the girls.

"You're up early" Alana said, surprised to see that he was up after having carried Mapenzi through the hot sun for several hours yesterday.

"Always am. Wheres Ariya and Mapenzi?" Simba asked having not seen them in the den when he woke up.

"Ariya took Mapenzi to meet Rafiki. They should be back soon" Ariya said, walking up to Simba and sitting down next to him.

"Know where my aunt is?" Simba asked.

"Catching up with Mheetu. Did you need something from her?" Alana asked, and watched as Simba shook his head and continued to stare out towards the savannah. Alana traced his line of sight to try and see what he was looking at and saw only grass in the direction he was looking, making her wonder was he was either look at or looking for.

"Everything alright?" Alana asked, and watched as Simba looked over at her with a confused face.

"Yea, why?" Simba asked, wondering what made her suspect that something may have been wrong.

"You're staring at nothing with an unreadable expression. Just thought something may have been bugging you" Alana said with a smile, just trying to look out for Simba.

"Nothing?" Simba said with a chuckle. "I was looking at my hideout" Simba said and watched as she wore a confused face. "Hard to see unless you know what to look for. Want me to show you?" Simba asked, wondering if she'd be interested in seeing his hideout.

"You're hideout?" Alana asked, wondering why Simba had a hideout when he also had all of Pride Rock to be in.

"Yea. I used to use it to hide from people but now I use it for dates or privacy" Simba said and watched as Alana wore a bit of an apologetic look on her face, feeling bad she asked a question like that but saw that Simba wasn't affected by it.

"Well I haven't got anything else to do all day" Alana said, not minding a tour from Simba.

"Well... Wait here" Simba said, remembering that he said he wasn't going to do anything else besides finding Sarafina or his father. Simba quickly trotted back inside and nudged Nala a few times upon getting over to her.

Simba watched as Nala opened her eyes with a confused look on her face, surprised that Simba made it back so fast, but then again she could have just been asleep and time could have flown by. "Hey. Your moms with your brother but mind if I show Alana around for a bit? I'll come back as soon as I get done" Simba said, hoping she would say yes.

Simba watched as Nala nodded her head before closing her eyes and going back to sleep, probably too tired to care what he did right now so long as it wasn't dangerous. With that, Simba trotted outside and over to where Alana was waiting with a curious expression.

"Sorry. They don't like it when I wander off and had to convince them to let me leave" Simba said with a slight chuckle, slightly amused by how the girls got when he wandered off and they had to track him down.

"Does that ever annoy you?" Alana asked, knowing that Simba didn't have to listen to anything they said for two reasons. One he was the prince, and two he was old enough to make his own decisions.

"Not really" Simba said, only finding it annoying when they make a big deal about him sneaking off. Sima began to walk down from Pride Rock and towards his hideout with Alana in tow and kept catching her staring at his legs like something was interesting or wrong with them.

"Not used to seeing muscles or veins?" Simba asked, having a good idea that she was surprised by his definition even though she had been around him for a few days now.

"Not to your extent" Alana said, wondering how the body would allow such a thing to happen since many of them weren't protected and could easily be cut or damaged.

"Yea, most people aren't" Simba said, wondering why it seemed like he was the only person most people had seen with any vascularity at all.

"Do you ever cut them or like... Damage them at all?" Alana asked, knowing that it probably wasn't the best thing to have so many veins vulnerable to being cut in a fight or some other situation.

"Rarely. They're stronger than they look" Simba said, remembering the time he would have expected to slice a vein open but didn't to his surprise. "Were here" Simba said after a slight pause, stopping and standing in front of a wall of grass.

Simba looked behind him and motioned for her to follow him as he entered the tall grass, and exited just beyond that and entered his hideout. Simba watched as Alana exited the tall grass and looked around with a surprised look on her face, being able to tell that she was shocked such a place could be so well hidden.

"Wow..." Alana said, never having seen this place even when she lived here.

"Yea" Simba said, looking around and remembering all the time he had spent here when he was younger.

"So do you have any plans today?" Alana asked, wondering what Simba normally did when he was in the Pride Lands.

"Nope. Probably just going to hang out with the girls all day" Simba said and watched as Alana smiled. Alana was surprised that Simba almost seemed so dependent on the girls. It was almost like everything he did he did for them and whenever he wasn't sure what to do he would look to them.

Upon saying this, Simba watched as Alana walked up to him and began to nuzzle into his side in a comforting manner, and Simba returned her nuzzle wondering why she was doing this gesture all of a sudden when she seemed to be fine a moment ago. Even though her eyes were closed, Simba could still see a slight painful look in her eyes and like every other time when it came to an adult being upset, he wasn't sure what to do.

"What's the matter" Simba said, knowing that something was already wrong so didn't even bother to ask if something was. Simba felt Alana stop nuzzling him, and then a few moments later finally remove her face.

"I don't know if you'll understand... but then again you do understand a lot" Alana said, looking up at Simba and seeing that he had a confused look on his face which made her smile a bit as she had just said he understood a lot.

"I don't really see my son as being my son" Alana said and watched as Simba seemed to grow a little more serious upon realizing the situation. "And every time I'm with you I keep thinking about how I wish he could have turned out to be more like you" Alana said, seeing Simba as a perfect son in her head.

"Well... I'm not sure if this will make sense and I don't know how he is but no one forced him to be the person he is. He chose that for himself. So I wouldn't worry about it" Simba said trying to cheer her up, and watched as she smiled at him.

"Thank you" Alana said, glad that Simba was able to reassure her that she didn't do anything wrong as a mother.

"Happy to help" Simba said, a little unsure of what to say back since this wasn't a situation he had ever found himself in before, but didn't want to make it awkward.

"Well, I enjoyed you taking me here and helping me with uh... that" Alana said, knowing that the girls were probably going to wonder where he was soon, and if she was understanding him correctly, he didn't want them to haft to go looking for him. "I'm sure your sisters are probably going to want you back soon" Alana finished and watched as he nodded his head and smiled at her before turning around and exiting his hideout.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba trotted up the hill that led into Pride Rock and peered inside to that Nala, Tama, and Kula were all still asleep and hadn't looked to move since he left. Simba quietly began to walk up to the three of them as to not wake them up and haft to deal with them when they were all quiet and cranky.

Upon reaching them, Simba looked down at them and wasn't sure what he wanted to do. He knew that they wanted to sleep and that he should probably let them if he wanted to keep them happy, but then again he had the urge to wake them up and give them a little surprise that he was back. Simba began to lean down to tap Nala with his muzzle to wake her up, but something stopped him...

 _"Stop!" Sarabi shouted, Startling Simba and causing him to jolt back a little._

 _"What?" Simba asked, wondering why she had yelled at him like that when all he was going do was wake Nala up._

 _"Gorge! Now!" Sarabi shouted._

 _"Gorge? Why would I go to the gorge?" Simba asked, wondering why his mother was making no sense._

 _"Now! Run!" Sarabi shouted, and Simba felt something also like the wind push into him making him take a step back._

Not wanting to argue with his mother and hearing the voice she used, Simba quickly turned around and sprinted towards the gorge with all his strength and speed put into every stride. Simba wasn't sure what was wrong, but he had never heard his mother shout or sound worried before, so he knew it had to be bad.

Simba continued to sprint to the gorge, pushing anything and anyone in his path out of the way and not stopping for anything. Simba could see the giant crack in the earth and realized something. His mother wanted him to go here for a reason, but the gorge was huge and finding whatever she wanted to find would be hard.

 _"What am I looking for?" Simba asked._

 _"The bottom. Go to the bottom!" Sarabi yelled._

 _"Ok, but what am I looking for?" Simba asked, wanting her to tell him._

 _"The bottom! At the bottom!" Sarabi said being vague._

Simba let out an annoyed sigh but continued to sprint to the gorge, and upon reaching it he jumped into the gorge and dug his claws in the walls to slow him down. Simba landed at the bottom of the gorge and began to look around for some sign of what she was talking about.

Upon looking for a clue, Simba both saw and smelled something in the distance, and ran up to it. Upon reaching it, Simba could tell that it was a pool of blood, and what also got his attention was that leading away from it there was a blood trail.

Knowing this had to be it, Simba ran in the direction the blood trail led off to wondering who was going to be at the end and what happened to it. Upon rounding a corner of the gorge, Simba saw a person who was wedged up under a fallen tree, and the blood trail led directly to them.

Simba slowed down a little trying to figure out who it belonged to and froze when he realized something. They were a lion, very large, red mane, and had a golden shade of fur. Not wanting to jump to any conclusions, Simba sprinted up to them to see who it was.

Simba stopped before the figure and rolled them over, and his worse fear was confirmed. It was his father...

"Dad!" Simba yelled and watched as Mufasa slowly opened his eyes and smiled up at him when he realized who it was.

"Simba... You'r-" Mufasa tried to say, but coughed and leaned over, spitting a pool of blood out. Upon doing, Simba attempted to try and find where the bleeding was and felt his heart freeze when he found it.

"No..." Simba said, observing that his fathers' ribs were broken and had punctured his lungs. The bleeding was internal and just like his mother, there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.

"Hey..." Mufasa said with a week voice and a smile. "I'll be ok" He said and ran his paw over Simbas check. "You promise me that you'll be the same" Mufasa said and dropped his arm after not having the strength to hold it up anymore.

"No. I can fix this. We need to get you to Rafiki's" Simba said, trying to lift his father and heard him release a painful groan, and immediately set him down. Simba realized that the more he moved the worse he tore his lungs up and the worse the bleeding got.

"I don't wanna be fixed..." Mufasa said with a dreamy look on her face.

"What happened?" Simba asked, wondering how his father came to be like this.

"Ambush... pushed..." Mufasa said, coughing up another large pool of blood.

"Who?! Who did this to you?!" Simba said, never feeling the urge to kill someone so strong before.

"S-Scar" Mufasa said, coughing up a little more blood. Simba wasn't sure who this scar person was, but all he was sure of was that his life just got a whole lot shorter.

"Simba..." Mufasa said, and watched as Simba looked up at him with a hateful and scared look. "You're going to be king..." Mufasa said, feeling more proud in that moment than he ever had before.

"What? No, I'm not ready. You said I would complete my training when I got back" Simba said.

"You are ready... I wasn't..." Mufasa said, and watched as Simba wore a confused look.

"I... Whatever. Can you walk? I need to get you to a safer location. I can try and stop the bleed and realign the bone" Simba said, thinking of anything he could do to save his father but couldn't think of anything.

"I'll give your love to your mother... I'm ready to see her again... I've been ready since the day she died" Mufasa said, and watched as Simba worse a face that told him he understood what he meant.

"No. I won't let you die!" Simba yelled, wondering why his father wanted to die.

"I'm... Proud to call you my son Simba... You're mother... Would be proud... To call you her... son..." Mufasa said, wheezing as he struggled to breathe. "I-I'm sorry for... Not being there when you were younger..." Mufasa said, and watched as Simba shook his head. "I love you Simba..." Mufasa said, and watched as Simba wore a face of both horror and anger, before spitting out more blood.

"I love you too dad but you'll be fine" Simba said and watched as his father wore a smile and looked up at the sky.

"So... this is what it feels like..." Mufasa muttered, and Simba watched as his face slowly started to relax and his smile began to fade, before going still...

Simba stared at his father for a few seconds in total disbelief, before realizing what was happening. "Shit!" Simba yelled, rolled his father onto his side and beginning to do compressions to attempt to revive him.

"Come on... Come on!" Simba said as he continued to perform compression, feeling as his ribs were all shattered and nothing like what solid bone should feel like.

"Fuck!" Simba yelled, not being able to get any sign that his father was coming back. Simba stopped compressions and put his paw on his neck, and didn't feel a pulse. "Shit" Simba said, continuing to do compressions and could feel his ribs continue to cut into his lungs.

"No! Dad come on! Breathe god damn it! Breathe!" Simba said, pushing down with all his force. Simba continued to do this for a few moments until realizing that he was gone, and no technique of resurrection would bring him back.

Simba took a few steps back and just stared at his father's corpse, watching as it remained still and there was no sign of life at all. Simba continued to stare at his father unsure of what to do or what to think...

Simba gentle closed his father's eyes and mouth and positioned him so that he was in a more peaceful looking position, before continuing to stare at him in disbelief.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Minutes turned to hours as Simba stood in the gorge next to Mufasa, and turned around when he heard someone running towards him. Simba looked down the walls of the gorge to see Matimba running towards him, and then up at the sky to see that it was nearly sunset.

"Simba!" Matimba said upon running up to him and then saw Mufasa. Matimba stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him, and after a glance, she could tell he was dead.

"What... What happened..." Matimba said in disbelief, wondering if her king was truly dead.

"He was pushed. I found him this morning" Simba said and watched as Matimba walked up to him and gave him a comforting nuzzle.

"I'm so sorry" Matimba said, wondering how Simba was going to handle his father's passing.

"Wasn't your fault" Simba said, missing the meaning of her gesture. Simba heard Matimba release a roar into the air, not of anger, hate, grief, or despair. A singular roar to let the others know she found him, and they needed to come to her.

"Who pushed him?" Matimba asked, laying down next to Simba.

"I don't know" Simba said, knowing his father had said scar, but didn't want to tell anyone until he knew who scar was.

"Was he... alive...?" Matimba asked, wondering if Simba found him dead or watched him die.

"Dying" Simba said, and felt Matimba rest her head into his in a comforting manner. Simba wasn't sure how long they stayed that way but watched as Kula came running towards them sometime later, and froze just as Matimba did upon seeing the king.

Simba watched as Matimba stood up and walked over to Kula and began to comfort her as she released some tears. One by one, members of the pride came to the source of Matimbas roar until everyone was there.

Simba watched as they all created a semi-circle around his father, each paying their respects and releasing their grief. Simba watched as they all paid respects and whatnot, before slowly beginning to leave one by one, until Simba and Sarafina were the only ones left.

"We should get back" Sarafina said, knowing that the others, including Rafiki, would be waiting for them at Pride Rock. Sarafina watched as Simba looked over, before slowly beginning to walk past her and back to Pride Rock.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba and Sarafina were walking in silence back to Pride Rock, and for the first time in forever Sarafina had no idea as to what she was going to do. Sarafina looked over at Simba and saw that he was still just walking in a straight line with a relaxed face, not even appearing to be sad.

"I'm sorry Simba. I... know this must be hard for you" Sarafina said, wishing that he would be willing to talk to her so she could see how he was doing.

"It's alright" Simba said, not sure what to say as he knew Sarafina wanted to talk to him.

"Um... I'm sure you already know this... but... you're king now" Sarafina said, wishing he could have had more time and been giving the kingship by his father instead of inheriting it from his father's passing.

"Yup" Simba said, knowing that Sarafina was going to try again to start a conversation and probably get the same results as this time.

"Simba please talk to me" Sarafina pleaded, wishing he would give her more than simple answers and give her a proper response.

"I am. I'll be ok. I know this sucks for everyone but it's just life, and in life, shit happens, and there's nothing you can do" Simba said, not seeing why everyone kept worrying about him. He would move on as always. It's what he's always done, and it's what he'll do now.

"I know Simba... It's just that this is going to bring a lot of changes and I'm not sure how you're going to like them" Sarafina said, knowing that Simba wasn't seeing the full picture as he was still young and had never experienced something like this.

"Aunite. I'm going to be fine. Trust me" Simba said, wondering why she wasn't able to understand that.

"I don't think so. Your father just died Simba! He's dead. Gone forever. Nothing can bring him back, and here you are acting like it's not a big deal. Most people don't react this way when a parent dies!" Sarafina said, hoping he would understand her concern.

"He wanted to die" Simba said, knowing that his father was where he wanted to be right now and that even though he would miss him, he didn't want to bring him back.

"What?" Sarafina said, knowing for a fact that Mufasa was not at all suicidal and still had a mission to train Simba.

"He wanted to die. He wanted to be with my mother again. After hearing what he had to say before he died It sounded like the only reason he was still alive at all was that he owed it to everyone to pay for his mistakes and train me to be king. As terrible as this sounds, if he was still around and I finished my training, I'm not sure how long it would before he turned up dead" Simba said, and watched as Sarafina slowly began to understand what he meant.

"You believe that?" Sarafina asked, wondering if that's what he truly thought or if he was just using that as a reason for being unable to save his father.

"He told me himself. I tried to fix him but he didn't want to be. He knew that he was dying and knew he was finally going to be able to see my mother for the first time in over a year" Simba said and watched as Sarafina wore a slightly defeated face.

"Did you try and save him?" Sarafina asked, wondering if Simba let him died or tried to save his father.

"Of course I tried, but... there just wasn't anything left to fix. Some damage just can't be undone" Simba said, and watched as Sarafina wore a surprised and confused face.

"What did you just say?" Sarafina said, stopping and holding Simba in place.

"Uhh... There just wasn't anything left to fix?" Simba asked, wondering why she was acting so weird.

"After that" Sarafina said, wondering if she had heard him right or if she was just going crazy.

"Some damage can't be undone?" Simba said, wondering why she had broken the whole serious mood over something that wasn't all that important.

"Yes..." Sarafina said, appearing to be staring off into space.

"Uh... you ok?" Simba said, wondering why she was acting so weird.

"Yes" Sarafina said, focusing back on Simba and continuing to walk towards Pride Rock.

"Ok..." Simba said, before catching back up to her.

"So... You proposed to Nala..." Sarafina said, already knowing the answer but just setting up the conversation.

"Yea" Simba said, knowing where this was going.

"Well... I believe that it would be in your best interest to marry her soon. Possible have a cub..." Sarafina said, not wanting to rush anything, but knew that the kingdom didn't have an heir and if anything were to ever happen to Simba, he was the last of his bloodline so the kingdom would collapse.

"Ugh... Yea I know" Simba said, knowing that he had to but didn't want to yet.

"I know it sounds gross and crummy, but you will need an heir soon Simba" Sarafina said, and watched as he rolled his eyes,

"Can't I just like set someone up to be next in line until then?" Simba asked, wondering if he could at least wait until he was older since he wasn't even two yet.

"Yes" Sarafina said, wondering if Simba had anyone in mind.

"Great. Nala" Simba said and watched as Sarafina shook her head, making him wonder what was wrong with that since she was going to be the queen.

"Of course Nala but they can't be part of the royal family. Makes them a target" Sarafina said and watched as Simba gave her a confused look. Not only was the rule stupid but wouldn't her being a queen already make her a target? Also wouldn't she already be in power, so making her assume full control make more sense?

"Very well, Tama" Simba said and watched as Sarafina wore a skeptical face. "Oh come on" Simba said, wondering what rule would eliminate her from the equation.

"She can be in line, but... well... She has anger issues... that's all" Sarafina said and watched as Simba rolled his eyes.

"I know... but I trust her. She might be short-tempered but... I trust her" Simba said and watched as Sarafina smiled a bit.

"Very well, Princess Tama it is" Sarafina said, and watched as Simba wore a confused face, making her crack a slight smile. "If you wish to make her your replacement for the time being, then she would be a princess. She wouldn't have the same powers of a princess by birth, but still, a princess" Sarafina said and watched as Simba rolled his eyes.

"Couldn't be less confusing..." Simba said, before continuing to walk to Pride Rock.

Upon reaching Pride Rock, Simba walked up the hill that led inside, and then around the corner and into the den and stopped upon seeing everyone, including Rafiki, waiting in a semi-circle in the middle of the den. Simba wondered what they were doing and why everyone was staring at him, before watching Sarafina walk past him and whisper into Rafiki's ear, before stepping away and taking her spot in the semi-circle.

"Prince Simba" Rafiki said, hitting the ground with his stick. Simba slowly began to walk up to where Rafiki was and sat down in front of him feeling a little awkward as everyone was staring at him.

"Nala and Tama. Take your spots next to the prince" Rafiki said and watched from the corner of his eyes as Nala appeared to be a little confused, and Tama appeared to be very confused. Rafiki watched as the two of them walked over to his and sat down, wondering why they were sitting down next to him.

"As Royal Mjuzi of this pride, I hereby declare you now, and for as long as you shall live, King Simba, Queen Nala, and Princess Tama!" Rafiki said, waking his stick in the air, before placing it down and breaking one of his fruits open, and writing the traditional symbols for the king, queen, and princess.

Upon finishing the Simbas mark, Rafiki steep back and stood in front of them. "Long live the King!" Rafiki yelled, holding his stick high in the air.

"Long Live the King, Long Live the King, Long Live the King!" The entire pride chanted, causing the three of them to realize was this is.

"We await your command, sire" Rafiki said with a smile, bowing down in respect. Rafiki watched as Simba continue to stare at him in shock, but finally realized that he needed to give orders.

"It's been a long day... Let's all just get some sleep" Simba said, and watched as everyone nodded their heads and began to fan out to there usual spots. "Alana..." Simba said in a much quieter voice and watched as she remained. "Can I have a word?" Simba asked, and watched as she stepped up to him.

"Well... Seeing as you were once a queen, I was wondering if you could help Nala and Tama for awhile" Simba asked, and watched as she respectfully nodded her head before bowing. "And one more thing" Simba said, watching as she continued to bow. "I'm not sire, lord, majesty, or any of that. Call me Simba" Simba said, not wanting to hear people use all those fancy and dumb titles.

Simba watched as she smiled, before nuzzling into him and she always did and began to walk away. Simba watched her retreating figure, before realizing that Tama was still beside him with a not so happy look on her face.

"Yea?" Simba asked, and watched as she motioned outside. Simba began to follow her outside and then followed her up to the very top of Pride Rock for some more privacy, wondering what she wasn't to say.

"Princess?" Tama asked, wondering why he decided to make her a princess and what freedom was going to take away from her.

"I guess. I mean you don't haft to call yourself that. It's just protocol that's all. If something were to ever happen to me I'd need a successor, and that's you" Simba said, and watched as Tama wore a confused face.

"Nala?" Tama asked, wondering why she couldn't do it if she was the queen.

"I asked, and it left me with more questions" Simba said, and watched as she rolled her eyes.

"Just promise me you won't need a successor" Tama said in a serious tone.

"I promise" Simba said, and watched as Tama nuzzled under her chin. Simba felt Tama quickly push him over and pin him, before placing a gentle kiss on his muzzle.

"Now, Don't think that just because you're king you get to tell me what to do" Tama said with a smile.

"Yes Ma'am" Simba said with a smile and watched as Tama licked the side of his face.

"Let get you cleaned up" Tama said motioning towards his paws, and Simba looked down at them to see his paws were covered in his father's blood, reminding him of something.

"Yea. I need to ask auntie something first" Simba said as he began to turn around and walk away. Simba entered Pride Rock once again to find that everyone besides Rafiki was still aside, and made his way over to Sarafina.

"Hey" Simba said as he stopped in front of her, and watched as she looked up at him with a slight smile, though still sad. "Um... There's no easy way to ask this so I'm just going to ask. What's going to happen to my father?" Simba asked, knowing his body was still in the gorge.

"Rafiki is taking care of that. His funeral will be tomorrow" Sarafina said, and watched as Simba nodded his head, before turning around and walking towards Tama who was waiting at the front of Pride Rock.

"Ready?" Tama asked, and watched as Simba walked straight past her and never gave her a response, making her wonder what was bothering him now. Tama sighed before turning around and moving to catch up with him, knowing that no matter what she said or did, he wasn't going to tell her what was wrong unless he wanted to.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Upon arriving at the waterhole, Simba stepped up to the shore and began to wash the blood off his paws, watching as it turned the immediate area around him red. Simba felt Tama rest her head on his shoulder before watching him as he washed his paws off. Simba felt Tama place a gentle kiss on the side of his muzzle, once again telling him that she was here for him if he needed her.

Upon finishing, Simba looked down at the scar on his left paw for a few moments, before beginning to brush over it and wonder if his father would ever be up there with his mother and if he would ever be able to talk to him.

"How did you really get that scar?" Tama asked when she saw that he was brushing over it.

"From the storm" Simba said, not wanting to tell her where he really got it because she would think he was crazy and then try to help him and only make him more frustrated.

"You're lying. I've memorized every scar on your body and know how you got it. That was there the morning you left for the storm" Tama said, not mentioning the part of how it was perfectly straight and had am much different appearance than every other scar.

"I don't remember" Simba said and watched as she wore a disappointed face.

"Fine" Tama said, a little upset that he didn't want to tell her. Tama looked up to see that Simba was staring at his reflection in the water, wondering what he was thinking about.

"Think you're ready to be king?" Tama asked, wondering if he had any faith in himself to rule a kingdom at his age. Tama watched as Simba smiled a bit, wondering how he was able to find any humor today as his father had just died.

"What I think is irrelevant" Simba said, wondering why Tama asked a question when the answer didn't matter. It did matter whether he was ready or not since his father was dead and he had already been crowned king.

"I was at least hoping for a yes or no" Tama said, wondering why Simba wasn't able to give her an answer that left her satisfied.

"So was I" Simba and Tama heard and quickly turned around to see Jason casually sitting at the shore a few yards away from them washing his paws off.

"What are you doing here" Tama said in an offensive tone, standing up and facing him so he couldn't try anything funny.

"The same thing as you are" Jason said, shaking his paws dry. "Sorry about your father" Jason finished, before standing up and beginning to walk away.

"How long have you been here?" Simba asked, not having heard Jason approach the shore which he thought to be odd.

"Since the kiss" Jason said, turning around and watched as Simba wore a surprised face and Tama wore an embarrassed and angered face. "Don't worry, I can keep a secret. Anyway, think I could talk to you for a few?" Jason said, looking over at Simba and watched as Tama wore a suspicious face.

"Why?" Tama cut in quickly and felt Simba gently place his paw on top of hers and step on it, telling her to back off.

"About what?" Simba asked, wondering what he had to say.

"I can tell you when we're alone" Jason said, and watched as Tama glared at him, and in return, he gave her a smirk. Jason knew that as long as Simba was present, he was going to keep her in check giving him nothing to worry about.

"Very well" Simba said. "I won't be long" Simba whispered into Tamas's ear.

"Fine" Tama said, knowing that he was king and didn't want to argue with him to the point where he ordered her home. Simba and Jason watched as Tama walked away, before looking back once she was out of range.

"Well that was easy" Jason said, surprised that Tama left so willingly.

"Surprisingly" Simba said, before turning back to Jason. "Now, what did you want" Simba asked, wondering why Jason wanted to talk to him alone at night.

"You may be better than me at almost everything, but I know the look of a killer when I see one" Jason said, having been in Simba's position himself.

"What?" Simba asked, surprised that Jason thought he was a killer.

"You know who killed your father. Scar did" Jason said, surprising Simba once again.

"How do you know" Simba said, getting strict and starting to wonder if Jason had a role to play.

"Well over these past few months I haven't been sitting on my ass all day and watching the clouds. I've been spying on my old clan, and after asking around not so nicely I've figured out who Scar is, and I know who we need to go to in order to find him" Jason said and watched as Simba looked to be slightly relieved.

"We?" Simba asked, wondering why Jason wanted in on the hunt.

"I had a family once" Jason said in a bitter tone, remembering back to his wife and daughter.

"Where are they?" Simba asked, wondering why he wasn't trying to live with them or even try and win them back if they hated him.

"Had red mane, Had. I never wanted to kill you. I want to capture you alive so when that son of a bitch came to kill you himself I would have him right where I wanted him" Jason said and watched as Simba understood what he meant.

"Then it seems we have a common enemy and goal" Simba said, and watched as Jason slowly nodded. "I don't want the others finding out about this. They'll try and stop me" Simba said, making sure Jason knew to keep it a secret.

"Thought being king would take care of that" Jason said, wondering why he didn't want them to know when in reality they couldn't stop him even if the wanted to.

"Well if I die I don't have a successor" Simba said, and watched as Jason chuckled a little.

"Then don't die" Jason said as he turned around and began to walk away. "I'll contact you in a bit. See ya later, red mane" Jason said over his shoulder.

"Why do you still call me that?" Simba asked, knowing that Jason knew his real name yet still referred to him as red mane.

"Title. Not a name" Jason said as he entered the tall grass, leaving Simba slightly confused. It sounded more like a name than anything else since his mane was red and he wasn't sure what the title was supposed to mean anyway.

Simba watched the area that Jason exited from for a few seconds, before turning around and heading back to Pride Rock knowing that people were waiting for him and would start looking for him soon.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Upon arriving at Pride Rock, Simba was met by Tama and Ariya who were waiting at the mouth of the cave for him and walked up to him upon arriving.

"Hey" Ariya muttered, not having spoken to him all day and wondered how he was doing. Ariya leaned forward and gently nuzzled into him in a comforting manner more for her sake than his.

"Hey" Simba replied, returning her nuzzle and looked over at Tama to see that she still looked to be a little unhappy. Simba felt Ariya pull away and begin to walk back into the den and over to where Mapenzi was, leaving him alone with Tama.

"What'd the hyena have to say" Tama asked, wondering why she couldn't have been present to listen to their conversation.

"Promised not to tell" Simba said with a smirk, and watched as Tama cracked a slight smile while rolling her eyes.

"How about we get some sleep" Tama said, motioning over to Nala and Kula who was looking at them, waiting for Simba to come inside and lay down so they could get some sleep.

"Probably a good idea" Simba said, looking up to see that it was far past sunset and it had been a long and sucky day. Simba began to walk over to where his queen and sister were, wondering what his first day as king would be like and if he would truly be ready to rule.

With that, Simba laid down and felt Nala snuggled into his warm embrace, giving him the mandatory good night kiss, before tucking her face into his soft and lush mane. Simba felt Tama lay down on top of him and rest her head on his neck and felt Kula snuggle into his back.

Simba let out a short sigh, before finally closing his eyes and letting his thoughts drift off to scar...

 **Done. It only took two weeks. (Nov. 20). The story is at like 24.7k views so It's definitely going up lol. Also, I know this chapter was a little shorter than the rest, but here's the catch. The next chapter to be published is going to be on December 25. I know that's 35 days away, (Well really 34 because I'm going to publish it late Christmas eve) but it's going to long and I wanna be an asshole and leave you with this amazing ending that's going to make you want more and make the wait seem even longer. Anyway, If you wanna leave a review so I can be more popular, even if its hating, send it on down, and that's pretty much all for now. See y'all at Christmas! Mr_Toast Out!**


	24. First Day On The Job

**Simbas Pain Chapter 24**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Discord: Mr_Toast#1679**

 **Story Discord: bit .ly /SimbasPain**

 **Merry Christmas Y'all, unless you're reading this after the day it was posted since this was posted on Christmas. The second chapter to be posted on Christmas. Anyway, not much to say here and I'll see y'all in the outro. As always, Enjoy!**

Simba slowly woke up after possibly the longest time he had ever slept before with a slow start and groaned. Simba attempted to lift his head to look outside to see what time it was and felt something weighing down his entire body. Not even having to guess what it was, Simba opened his eyes to see Tama laying on top of him preventing him from going anywhere.

"Morning" Simba said, beginning to force his way up and felt two new sets of paw grab onto him and prevent him from getting up. Instead of complying, Simba continued to push his way up and was met by the gazes of Tama, Kula, and Ariya.

"Auntie told us not to let you leave" Kula said as she circled around him and stood behind him in case he tried to run. Simba looked around and saw that the girls had now boxed him in which made him chuckle.

"I wasn't planning on it, though it seems you've taken measures to prevent me anyway" Simba said, knowing that they were probably concerned and didn't want him wandering off all by himself.

"Well she was serious about you not being alone" Ariya said, not wanting to make Sarafina mad after one of her lifetime friends had just died.

"Why?" Simba asked, wondering why everyone was concerned about him being alone when he was completely fine.

"Because she-" Ariya was saying, and then watched as time seemed to slow as Simba suddenly jolted to the side as if he was trying to escape why they were off guard, and all three of them closed the distance and stopped when they saw that Simba was still again and chuckling.

"So you are paying attention" Simba said, and watched as they all gave him unamused looks. Simba knew that he wasn't doing himself any favors by tricking the girls like that but just couldn't resist the urge to test them to see if they were really paying attention or not.

"Can you please just lay back down?" Ariya asked, walking up to him and beginning to pull him back to their usual corner but couldn't make him budge. Ariya realized that for the first time in what seemed like forever, Simba was using his strength to resist her, reminding her that all those other times she messed around with him was because he was letting her. Ariya felt a slight feeling of intimidation wash over her knowing how much stronger he was than her and how she wouldn't last a second in a fight with him, but it was quickly washed away when she remembered he would never hurt her.

"I just want some alone time" Simba said, and watch as Ariya gave him a look that read 'No'. Simba knew that his request would be shot down, but as always, he decided to just try it in case some miracle would happen where the would allow him.

"Simba" Tama said and watched as he turned around and looked over at her. "How about we take a walk?" Tama asked, knowing that since Nala wasn't here she would have the highest chance of successfully talking to him.

"Sure" Simba said, quickly turning around and giving Ariya and quick nuzzle to let her know he wasn't mad at her, and did the same to Kula when he walked by her and followed Tama out of the cave.

"I know that you're ok. Both physically and mentally, but it's our nature to worry" Tama said, and watched as Simba gave her a slightly surprised and confused look.

"I know you hate it when we ask if you're ok and keep you from wandering off… but… if you want to be by yourself, then I guess you can" Tama said as she stopped at the bottom of Pride Rock, and watched as Simba gave her a shocked expression.

"You're letting me leave?" Simba asked, wondering if he was understanding her correctly.

"Just check back in with me at noon" Tama said, and watched as Simba began to take a step forward, and quickly threw her paw out and caught his. "Just… be quick… they're not going to be happy I did this" Tama said, knowing she was going to take some sort of heat from the two of them.

"Thank you" Simba said, leaning in and giving her a nuzzle. With that, Simba quickly ran away into the savanna both surprised and confused as to how any of that happened or why Tama just let him go. Tama was usually the most reluctant when it came to letting him leave and never just let him go without either strict rules or making sure he was going to be accompanied by someone.

Upon entering Pride Rock, Tama watched as Kula and Ariya met her with surprised looks, wondering where Simba was.

"Please tell me you didn't lose him" Kula said, fearing Simba may have bolted on her.

"I let him go" Tama said, and watched as she earned looks of disbelief. "It isn't fair to him to keep him locked up and preventing him from being himself" Tama said as she walked by the two of them, hoping that her words would have some sort of effect on them. Tama watched as they both looked at her with annoyed looks as she laid down to get some rest, before finally letting them fall and following her lead, although still appearing to be annoyed.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was walking back to Pride Rock after a long morning workout, being the first time that he could remember about not having to worry about one of the girls looking for him and interrupting his routine. Simba wasn't sure why Tama even let him leave since she was the more protective one out of the girls, and started to wonder why things turned out to be so much different this time compared to others.

Upon nearing the waterhole, Simba cut through the grass to take a shortcut to avoid other animals as the news of his father had most likely spread throughout the pride lands and beyond. Upon exiting, Simba heard a faint noise around him and stopped to tune in on it. After listening for a brief second, he could make out the sounds of gentle sobbing.

Simba carefully approached the source of the noise, having entered the tall grass again and being unable to see what it was. Simba exited the tall grass and found himself in a small clearing that was only a few feet wide at most and saw Mapenzi curled up in the center and was attempting to silence her sobs but wasn't doing a good job at it. Upon noticing it was her, Simba quickly made his way over to her trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Mapenzi?" Simba said in a gentle voice and watched as she suddenly looked around to see him, and could see the terrified look in her eyes. The second she made eye contact with him, Mapenzi sprung up and ran into Simba's chest and hung on for dear life, making Simba wonder what had traumatized her.

"Hey, what's the matter?" Simba asked softly, trying to calm her down.

"I'm lost" Mapenzi said with a hiccup, unaware of where she was and what could be out there that wanted to hurt her.

"It's ok. You're safe. I won't let anything happen to you" Simba said once again with a soft tone but added a little enthusiasm this time, and watched as Mapenzi finally looked back up at him again.

"You promise?" Mapenzi asked, still having fear present in her voice. Simba knew that she was just scared right now and did what all cubs did when they were scared, make someone promise them things would be ok.

"I promise. Now let's head home" Simba said, and watched as the look in her eyes slowly started to return to her normal self.

"I want mommy" Mapenzi said, and watched as Simba gave her a look of defeat, before quickly replacing it with a smile so she wouldn't be able to catch on.

"Um… ok, sure. We can find your mother" Simba said, having no idea where Alana was. Simba had an idea that Alana went out and Mapenzi wanted to follow her but must have gotten lost on the way and tried to find her again, but only ended up getting more lost in the process.

Simba suddenly felt Mapenzi try and climb up on top of him so he could carry her, and Simba leaned down so she could climb up easier. Once she was on top, Simba began to exit the tall grass and started to wonder where he would even begin to look for her since he had no idea what she was doing or if she had some sort of favorite spot.

"Any idea where your mother may be?" Simba asked, knowing that Mapenzi knew almost none of the geography of the pride lands but was at least hoping for a direction. Simba watched as she pointed her paw out left, towards the eastern border, and began to make his way there.

Simba had an idea of where she may have been, although it was unlikely. After walking for a short while, Simba looked across the flat plains of grass trying to make out a lioness, and was able to spot someone after a short while. Simba had an idea she would be in the plains since they were calm, had a good view, and at night they were perfect for stargazing.

"Alana" Simba said as he began to make his way over to her, and watched as she turned around and gave him a confused look, before starting to approach him after seeing Mapenzi.

"Is everything alright?" Alana asked, wondering why the two were approaching her and why Simba was having to carry Mapenzi.

"She wandered off and got lost. She was pretty shaken up when I found her" Simba said as he leaned down for Mapenzi to get off, and watched as she ran to her mother and was embraced with a hug.

"Mapenzi you know better than to wander away. You could have gotten hurt or worse" Alana said, knowing she had made it known multiple times that she ever wanted Mapenzi to be alone.

"I didn't mean to" Mapenzi said as she started to break down and made up an answer despite deliberately having left pride rock.

"Where's your sister?" Alana asked, wondering how Mapenzi was able to slip away from Ariya when she had told her to watch Malenzi while she was gone.

"Pride Rock" Mapenzi said, knowing she was already in big trouble for sneaking away and was now probably going to get Ariya in trouble as well.

"As I thought. Now come on. We're going back" Alana said as she gently nudged Mapenzi so she would start walking. Alana began to lead Mapenzi back to Pride Rock so she could have a chat with both of her daughters and then realized that Simba was following him and she hadn't even thanked him for finding Mapenzi. As much as Alana hated to think of it, it could have been hours before someone realized Mapenzi was missing and this whole thing would have been so much worse. Alana wanted to do it now but knew that it would be better once they were in private so she could have a conversation with him without her daughters being present.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Upon entering Pride Rock, Alana sported Ariya and the other girls, including Nala, sitting in their normal corner laying around lazily most likely waiting for others to return. Almost instantly Ariya spotted Simba and her mother and got up to greet them.

"Hey" Ariya said, walking up to Simba to give him a nuzzle but was stopped when her mother abruptly put an arm out to stop her. Ariya looked over at her mother to see that she was glaring at her and realized that she was probably in trouble for something.

"Forgetting something?" Alana said, scooting Mapenzi up into view. Alana watched as Ariya immediately realized that she was supposed to have been watching her sister, but was probably distracted messing around with her friends.

"Um… yes… but I thought she wouldn't wander off" Ariya said, having expected Mapenzi to have been more responsible at ten months old.

"Come with me" Alana said as she turned around and nudged Mapenzi to follow as well. "You too" Alana said as she passed Simba, making him wonder if she was somehow mad at him since she hadn't said anything to him the entire walk back.

Alana led the three out of Pride Rock and our behind it to be out of war shot of the curious and confused lionesses inside, and once far enough away, turned around and faced the three of them.

"What was the one thing I told you before I left?" Alana said to Ariya, and watched as she fidgeted with her paws a bit.

"To watch Mapenzi" Ariya said, knowing she was in trouble for real this time. Ariya heard her mother release an annoyed sigh and felt even more hopeless.

"Precisely" Alana said. "All you had to do was watch Mapenzi. How come that was so hard for you? Could you not have talked with her or played with her to keep her occupied? Or were you too busy socializing with your friends?" Alana asked, wondering how Ariya let this happen.

"I wasn't messing around with my friends l was watching Simba" Ariya said in her defense. Ariya watched as her mother's posture and expression went for annoyed to rather angry, and wondered what she had said to cause such a reaction.

"Why were you watching Simba?! He's fully able to take care of himself and obviously far more responsible than you. Why on earth would you possibly need to watch Simba?" Alana asked, never having heard a worse excuse in her life.

"To make sure he would be ok" Ariya said truthfully, unsure how he would be after his father's death and wanted to be there for him if he needed her.

"So are you saying he is more important than your sister?" Alana asked, wondering why she was so obsessed with watching him but not her sister.

"No… I just… thought he could use a friend" Ariya said, realizing that her actions did make it look that way.

"And what about your sister? She's new around here and doesn't know anyone but two other people. Don't you think that she could use some support?" Alana asked, wondering how Ariya was failing to see the bigger picture.

"I thought she would do that on her own. I did it so she should be able to" Ariya said in defense, wondering why she was always having to break her back for her sister.

"Your sister isn't you Ariya! You know she's always had a hard time fitting in! When you came to visit us it was the first time that Mapenzi felt complete since you left. She finally had her big sister to look up to but you practically ignored her and hardly played with her!" Alana yelled, wondering what had changed inside Ariya.

"It's not my fault she was born different than the rest of us!" Ariya said in defense, wondering why her mother was expecting so much from her.

"What did you just say?" Alana said in a tone that held so much anger and aggression.

"It's true! What kind of a ten-month-old still suckles or can't go to bed unless mommy coos her to sleep!" Ariya asked, wondering why her mother was unable to see that there wasn't much she could do since she wasn't her mother.

"You apologize right this instance!" Alana said as she got up and stormed towards Ariya.

"I didn't mean it like that" Ariya said, realizing she had messed up big time with that last statement.

"Oh, I know what you meant. Trust me" Alana said, stopping right in front of Ariya. "Yes, your sister still suckles and can't fall asleep on her own. But how dare you accuse her of that as if she does it on purpose. Do you think she asked to be this way? Do you really think she wanted to be the only person in the pride to need milk long after she was weaned? No! She never asked for any of this. Yet you stand here and accuse her of doing it as if she's purposely trying to make your life hard!" Alana said and watched as Ariya wore an ashamed expression.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think of it that way. I just… I'm just not used to having to look after her anymore, and I half expected her to outgrow all of that stuff while I was gone" Ariya said, being unable to make eye contact.

"Well she hasn't, and she needs you now more than ever" Alana said, looking over to see that Mapenzi was wearing an embarrassed expression. "So will you please go back inside and play with or, or even talk to her?" Alana said and watched as Ariya shook her head.

"Thank you. Now could you please take your sister back and excuse the two of us?" Alana asked, and watched as Ariya stood up and gave Mapenzi a short apologetic nuzzle as she walked by and led her sister back to Pride Rock.

Alana looked over to see that Simba was sitting quietly aside with a surprised look on his face, most likely wondering what he had just witnessed.

"Had I known that was going to happen I wouldn't have invited you" Alana said, hoping that it would have been a very short and cooperative conversation and wouldn't have gotten personal.

"It's alright. I can keep a secret" Simba said, knowing that Mapenzi probably didn't want other people to know that she still suckled.

"Thank you, for finding her and bringing her to me" Alana said, finally getting to thank Simba for what he did back there.

"Welcome. Not trying to pressure you but maybe you should take her out sometime and let her learn the layout of the place so she doesn't get lost like this again" Simba said, knowing that if she was going to be living here it would be good for her to know where everything was.

"I will... I just can't believe Ariya right now" Alana said, letting an angry expression come to her face.

"She's just a little confused right now between all of this" Simba said, knowing that her emotions, and especially the other girl's emotions right now were all a little sensitive and susceptible to having a breakdown.

"I know, but she's just being very selfish, and I never raised her to be that way" Alana said, wondering what had gotten into her eldest daughter.

"She, as well as the other girls, are just worried for me. Give it a few days and she'll go back to normal" Simba said, and watched as Alana gave him a small smile.

"For someone as young as you, you sure do seem to have your share of wisdom" Alana said, walking up to him and gently nuzzling into him.

"It's the only way to persuade the girls to let me up in the morning" Simba chuckled, having tried and failed many times by trying to use basic logic as they were far too stubborn.

"How are they?" Alana asked, wondering how Nala, Tama, and Kula were doing after the king's death. Alana knew that Simba had his paws full between the three of them as he was their source of comfort and they all seemed to be in need of a little comfort in a time like this.

"Good. A little surprised, but we all are" Simba said, realizing that he was supposed to have checked in the girls at noon and it was at least an hour past that, but knew they saw him when he entered the cave when Alana went to retrieve Ariya.

"I'm sure they want to make sure you're ok" Alana said, knowing that the girls would always be in the mood to see Simba and Alana wanted to continue to relive her childhood memories.

"Yup. See you tonight" Simba said as he leaned over and nuzzled her, and felt her return it and shortly after pulling away. Simba watched as she walked back to where he had previously found her, and turned around himself to make his way back to Pride Rock.

Upon entering the cave, Simba saw that Ariya was playing with Mapenzi as instructed to do with her mother, but looked to be bored as Mapenzi was unable to play at her skill level causing Ariya to always win. Past them, Simba saw Nala, Tama, and Kula all looking over at him with a look that told him they had been waiting for him.

"Hey" Simba said as he walked up to the three of them, and watched as Kula stood up and playfully pinned him, and felt as Nala and Tama also got up and joined in on the fun. Simba attempted to stand back up but felt them continue to hold him down and nuzzle into him.

"I wasn't gone that long" Simba said in a joking manner as they were acting as if this was the first time they had seen him all week.

"Being gone at all is too long" Nala said with a purr as she licked the side of his face and nuzzled into his mane. Doing what Simba always found to be funny, he pushed himself off the ground and stood up despite their best efforts of trying to keep him pinned on the ground, and felt as they all continued to press against him and nuzzle him all over.

"You all seem to be in a good mood" Simba said as he looked down at them, and noticed something he hadn't noticed before. They were all competitively nuzzling him, playfully pushing each other out of the way and nuzzling where the other had been as if they were having some sort of nuzzling war.

Simba watched as Nala abandoned her spot on his chest and leaned up to be eye level with him, and felt as one of the other girls immediately took over the spot she had been holding, increasing the amount of territory she had to nuzzle into. Simba felt Nala draw him into a passionate kiss and began to wonder why they were all acting so playful.

"Guys?" Simba asked once his kiss with Nala broke and watched as they all seemed to ignore him as Nala leaned back down and pushed Tama out of the way to reclaimed her lost territory on his mane. "Hey" Simba said, suddenly taking a step back and breaking all their nuzzles, and watched as they all gave him dirty looks.

"Why are you acting so playful all of a sudden" Simba asked, wondering if something had happened since this morning when they all seemed to be fine. Simba had no idea as to how a girl's emotions worked, but one thing he had figured out was it wasn't uncommon for them to do things like this when they were feeling upset.

"Because we can" Kula said. Kula watched as Simba gave her a confused face which instantly caused her to remember just how cute he got when he was confused, reminding her just how much she found him to be adorable.

"Right…" Simba said, not sure what he was supposed to say back.

"Let a girl have her fun" Tama said as she walked up to him and went to nuzzle him, but felt him suddenly stop her in a gentle manner.

"And let a guy have a chance to breathe" Simba said with a chuckle, knowing that as soon as he let her continue, Nala and Kula would join in and swarm him once again.

"Come on" Tama pouted, forgetting that she wasn't alone and quickly catching herself and resuming to her normal self.

"Tama can pout?" Kula said in a mocking voice.

"Legend has it that she also purrs" Nala said, joining in on the teasing.

"But no one will ever know since no one ever lives to tell the tale" Tama said with an evil smile, and watched as Nala and Kula wore looks of surprise, not having been expecting a comeback like that.

"Except one lion who was able to tame her heart" Simba said as he pulled her into a hug. Simba felt Tama try to push away from him, but held on to her for a few moments longer, before finally releasing her and watching as she had a slightly irritated expression.

"How cute" Kula said while Simba was hugging Tama, and watched as Tama gave her a warning glare, and Kula knew better than to test her.

"Come on girls. Place nice" Simba said as he licked the top of Tamas head, and felt as she ducked her head the second his tongue made contact with her.

"Stop, you're messing up my fur" Tama said as she combed the hair on her back to the way she liked it.

"You mean your tuff" Simba said as he blew over the top of her head, causing the tuff to puff up for a second and heard the other girls giggle.

"Stop" Tama said as she put her paw of Simba's muzzle while she combed her hair out again with her other paw.

"Come on. Let a guy have his fun" Simba said, and watched as she smiled and rolled her eyes, before walking away from them.

Simba watched her retreating figure with a slightly curious look, and was broken from his trance when he felt Nala kiss his cheek.

"What's on your mind this time?" Nala asked, knowing by the look on his face he was thinking about something.

"I've been meaning to talk to her, just haven't had to chance" Simba said as he looked over at her and kissed her nose.

"Well then talk to her. You'll know where to find us" Nala said as she playfully licked his nose in response.

"I love you" Simba said as he nuzzled into her.

"I love you too" Nala said with a smile as she licked the side of his face. "Better get going before you lose her" Nala said, and watched as he turned around and ran after her, and Nala smiled at how much she loved moments like these.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was tailing Tama from a distance and observing how she seemed to be walking in a slight upset manner, proving he was right to think something was wrong with her. Simba could also tell something was wrong since she was going to his hideout alone which was always the place she liked to go when the was alone and upset.

Upon entering his hideout, Simba saw Tama looking down at her reflection in the small pond. Simba was wondering what she was doing when she suddenly swatted at the water with anger and turned around to meet his gaze.

Simba watched as she looked at him for a few seconds with a slightly surprised face, before sighing and sitting down, knowing that it was obvious that she wasn't ok and he was going to help her.

"Well… You already knew I was going to ask… but what's wrong?" Simba asked, have a good idea of what was wrong and how to solve it.

"I'm ugly" Tama said, surprising Simba completely. Simba thought that she was hurting on the inside and needed to express her emotions to someone, but this was just nothing related to what she had said.

"What?" Simba asked as he walked up to her, thinking that she was just as beautiful as Nala and Kula.

"I look like a fucking boy Simba. And I act like one too" Tama said, and watched as Simba wore a confused face. "My tuff Simba. I'm the only girl who has one and it makes me look so different" Tama said, wondering why the kings decided to curse her with it.

"There's nothing wrong with being different. Take me for example" Simba said, knowing he was different from Chumvi, Malka, and Tojo, but that was a good thing.

"Look at me" Tama said as she turned around and looked at the pond which was no longer distorted by the impact. Simba walked up beside her and looked down at her reflection to see a confused yet beautiful lioness reflecting back up at him.

"Just because you have a tuff doesn't mean you're ugly. It's special. I like it. It's just one more thing that makes you unique. Your tuff it part of you and no matter how hard you try and get rid of it, you can't be someone your not" Simba said, and watched as she looked over at him.

"Thanks" Tama said as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Come on. Cheer up" Simba said with a chuckle, and felt as she remained still. "Alright then. Suit yourself" Simba said as he pinned Tama to the ground and began to tickle the side of her face with his muzzle.

Tama was caught off guard and attempted to push Simba off, but found it hard to breath from all the laughing she was doing and it wasn't long before she was powerless to stop him as he continued to tickle her.

"Stop Simba!" Tama said through laughter, trying to fight back but kept buckling under her own laughter.

"Now that's more like it" Simba said upon stopping, glad to see that she was still able to laugh and smile.

"Jerk" Tama said as she punched his shoulder.

"Jokes on you since you still love me" Simba said, and heard Tama sigh.

"How could I not?" Tama said, wondering how someone wasn't supposed to fall in love with someone like him.

"Best way to get a girl to listen is to get to her heart first" Simba said with a chuckle. Simba watched as Tama cracked a slight smile, before rested her head on his shoulder in silence once again.

Simba continued to sit there in silence, waiting for her to say or do something but continued to feel her rest her head on his shoulder in silence, causing the silence to get more awkward with each passing moment.

"Mind if I cuddle?" Tama said just as Simba opened his mouth to say something. Simba was a little startled but her talking as he hadn't expected her to talk after being so quiet for so long.

"Uhh… like nuzzling?" Simba asked, wondering if those two were the same thing or differed slightly.

"Just hold me" Tama said as she leaned deeper into Simba, and felt him wrap his arms around her and gently hold her in a hug. Upon doing this, Tama let out a long satisfied purr and fell into Simba letting him support her weight.

"I kinda just feel like being a girl for awhile" Tama said as she pulled back after a short while, earning a slightly confused look from Simba in which she found to be adorable.

"I just kinda wanna be girly for the next few minutes. Also that look is cute" Tama said as she gently nuzzled into him.

"Ok" Simba said, returning her nuzzle and not sure what else to say.

"So soft…" Tama muttered and felt Simba tense up a bit. "Relax" Tama said, and felt his muscles ease up a bit making it more comfortable.

"Sorry. I've just never seen you act very... feminine before" Simba said, and felt her purr and she nuzzled into him, before pulling away and looking back up at him.

"Well it can be hard to find privacy like this" Tama said, and watched as Simba gave her a slightly confused look which she found to be cute as well and smiled a little upon seeing it. "I just like to show my affection for people in private" Tama said, and watched as Simba understood.

"There's nothing wrong with doing it in public. Kula does it. Nala most certainly does it. I mean you're upset that you're different from them and you're sorta doing it on purpose" Simba said with a little chuckle, wondering why she was complaining about being different when she was trying to be different.

"I just don't like showing weakness" Tama said as she avoided eye contact, and felt Simba pull his paw up to her chin and try and guide her head up to establish eye contact and responded by pushing it away.

"I wouldn't call that weakness. I just think that if you maybe talked more openly with Nala, Kula, and maybe Ariya you wouldn't feel so different" Simba said, and watched as she looked up at him.

"That's not the problem Simba. I can't not be different. I can't not be myself. And who I am is different. And sometimes it just sucks" Tama said, and watched as Simba wore a defeated look.

"What caused your mood change at Pride Rock" Simba asked, wondering how she went from nuzzles and having fun to be all sad so quickly when nothing happened.

"The teasing" Tama said with an annoyed look on her face.

"They didn't mean any of that. Besides you do it to them all the time" Simba said, wondering how she thought they were serious or how she took it personally.

"I know… I just didn't mean to pout like that…" Tama said, regretting the fact she forgot she wasn't alone.

"You make no sense" Simba said placing a gentle kiss on her cheek, and felt her lick the side of his face. "The reason they teased you is they know you can purr. You're a lion. All lions purr. But the fact that you hide it from them makes it a target of teasing. Same with your feelings. They know you're capable of love, sadness, anger, and every other emotion" Simba said, and watched as she gently shook her head.

"I know. I don't know why it bothered me so much" Tama said, wondering how she let it affect her. She was supposed to be the leader. The Alpha. So it didn't make sense to her that she was capable of being hurt by mere teasing when she was supposed to be the strongest one around.

"Doesn't matter" Simba said, not wanting her to dwell on her current state.

"Thanks" Tama said, placing a gentle kiss on his cheek. Upon doing this, Tama watched as he turned his head to look at her, and as soon as she saw the opportunity to kiss him she took it. Tama quickly jolted up and caught him in a kiss, and felt him start to return it. Tama felt the familiar feeling of guilt return to her heart upon doing this, telling her to pull away as she wasn't his mate, but she ignored it as she always felt so free when she kissed Simba, as if someone his lips alike were all it took to melt all her problems away and not haft to worry about anything. Tama broke the kiss when she felt the need for air, and watched as Simba looked down at her with a slightly nervous smile, and Tama returned it, knowing the two of them were still new to kissing each other and the ending was still awkward.

"Thanks for hearing me out" Simba said, knowing Tama could be stubborn and unwilling to listen to anyone when she got moody. Upon saying this, Simba could hear the faint sounds of two people attempting to sneak up on them, and had a good idea as to who it was.

Simba and Tama heard a slight crack behind them, and turned around to see Kula in the middle of sneaking up on them.

"Kula!" Nala said, wondering how she had been so careless.

"Sorry" Kula said, swatting the stick she had stepped on to the side.

"How long have you been here?" Tama asked, wondering if they had heard any of the conversation she had with Simba, of the kiss she had given him.

"We got bored and Ariya was playing with Mapenzi so we decided to see what you guys were up to" Nala said, walking over them and nuzzlings into Simba.

"Just talking about girl stuff" Simba said, giving Tama a wink and watched as she gave him an irritated look.

"Well, don't stop. Go on" Kula said, wondering what kind of girl stuff Tama would be talking about with a boy.

"I don't know. Girl stuff… like how to keep fur well-groomed and all that. Fashion and stuff" Simba said, making some stuff up to get Tama roped into hopefully a girly activity in which he would leave her to suffer alone.

"Oh. My. God" Nala said with a smile on her face, and Tama knew this wasn't going to be good. "Tama needs help with a makeover!" Nala said, never thinking the day would come where Tama wanted to look nice for no other reason than to be a normal girl.

"Not really" Tama said, knowing that it would involve her having to be still for a while, while her sisters messed with her fur for awhile.

"Oh come on. We could all totally have a girls night! Except maybe for you Simba" Kula said, watching as he was slowly backing away, and stopped quickly when she looked over at him.

Tama looked over at Simba and watched as he nodded his head, telling her that she should do this and see how it goes. If she hates it he would just make it up to her some other time.

"That sounds… fun" Tama said with some fake enthusiasm.

"You girls wait here. I'll get the flowers" Nala said as she ran off to fetch some roses, kissing Simba on the way by.

Simba watched as Tama looked at him with a lion telling him that payback would be served in time, and Simba nodded his head with a smile before quickly farting out of his hideout to find his aunt.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Knowing that Nala and Kula could spend hours grooming their fur and doing all their little tricks to make it look nice, Simba knew he would have plenty of time to find Sarafina and talk to her. Having a good idea of where she would be, Simba neared Rafiki's tree and saw her sitting outside it looking out to the savanna.

"Auntie" Simba said as he sat down next to her, and watched as she gave him a warm smile.

"My king" Sarafina said with a slight bow, and watched as Simba gave her a look telling her he didn't want to be treated any different than before.

"Umm…. so… I guess I'll just say it. What's the funeral going to be like?" Simba asked, and watched as Sarafina wore a slightly sad look.

"Well… it wasn't a public funeral. He was buried next to your mother this morning" Sarafina said, and watched as Simba simply nodded. Sarafina wasn't sure if Simba was truly ok if he was just faking it as he seemed to be taking his father's death lightly, but then again what he had said to her last night did make sense and it seemed to have had an impact on him.

"I'm so proud of you. Your mother would be too" Sarafina said, feeling tears build up behind her eyes.

"I know" Simba said, feeling as she closed the distance between them and pressed herself up against him.

"They're together" Sarafina said with a smile as few tears escaped her eyes. "I just know it" Sarafina said, licking the top of Simba's head.

"How old are you" Simba asked, knowing that it was very rude to ask someone, especially a girl around Sarafinas aged that question, but had to know. "I know I shouldn't ask… but I need to know" Simba said, and watched as she nodded her head.

"Five years four months" Sarafina said, wondering why he wanted to know.

"How old were you when your mother passed away?" Simba asked, and watched as she had a very curious look on her face.

"Three" Sarafina said, trying to connect the dots in her head.

"How old does a lioness haft to be to get pregnant?" Simba asked, and watched as Sarafina wore a very surprised look.

"Umm… well… depends on the lioness but I guess after two? Thought usually around and after four" Sarafina said, wondering if Simba and Nala were planning on having a cub.

"Well… the reason I asked all those questions was because when I have a cub one day, and it would be with Nala, I wanted you to be able to see it" Simba said, and watched as she smiled.

"Don't feel like you have to rush for me. I was able to watch both my cubs grow up and one turn out to be the queen I always knew she would be" Sarafina said, feeling lucky enough she was able to witness that and was no longer afraid of dying in the same way as before.

"I'm not saying I want to rush… but I was just thinking that you would probably want to be alive to see your grandchild" Simba said, and watched as she smiled.

"I do, but if I don't, Don't regret not having one sooner" Sarafina said, nuzzling into him.

"Yea…" Simba said, not really sure what to say.

"You'll make a great king Simba" Sarafina said, nuzzling into the side of him.

"I know, I just haft to gain a little confidence first" Simba said, knowing that everything was going to be fine but it would be a few days before he was fully able to lay back on that idea.

"How are the girls?" Sarafina asked, hoping that after spending most of the day with him as she instructed them to do he would be able to tell how they were doing. Sarafina didn't need to be tricky when it came to Simba since he was always honest and open with her, but when she told the girls to watch Simba she was really hoping that Simba would be able to tell if they were ok.

"Fine. I don't think they ever got nearly as close as I did to him or anyone else your age" Simba said, and watched as Sarafina nodded her head.

"I'm surprised they let you leave for this long" Sarafina said with a chuckle, having expected that they would be super clingy and strict about him wandering off.

"Well I kinda tricked them into forgetting about me" Simba said, and watched as Sarafina gave him a curious look telling him that she wanted to know how he did it so she could maybe use that trick in the future.

"Well after having a talk with Tama, in which she didn't cry for the first time in a while, which was nice, Nala and Kula came by and I told them we were talking about girl stuff, and then told them how she was talking about how she wanted to make her fur look nice, they dragged her into a makeover session thing and I left when they were distracted" Simba said, watching as Sarafina gave him a smile.

"I almost keep forgetting that you guys are still in the stage of looking like adults but acting like cubs" Sarafina said with a smile, remembering those days herself.

"I should probably go back and make sure Tama is playing nice" Simba said with a chuckle, and felt Sarafina nuzzle into him.

"Good idea" Sarafina said with a smile, and watched as he turned around and began walking back to his hideout.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba slowly began to enter his hideout, wondering at which stage of grooming the girls were currently in, and saw them all looking down at their reflections in the water. Simba could tell that even though he was looking at their backs, they had smiles on their faces and they all seemed to be in a good mood.

Simba was staring at them when they all turned around and halted when they spotted him, and sat in a flashy pose with a smile on their face to see what he would think.

"Wow…" Simba said with a chuckle, having been underestimating just how beautiful they would be when they turned around. Nala had her signature red rose tucked behind her ear and well-groomed fur and appeared to sparkle in the sunlight. Kula had a purple flower that he had seen before but didn't know the name of which matched her well-groomed darker fur perfectly. Lastly Tama, and Simba was left astonished at the way she looked. She had an orange flower behind her ear that not only matched the color of her fur, but also the colors of her eye, and he was looking at a smile she wore only on the rarest of occasions.

"Well… how do we look" Kula asked, and watched as Simba continued to stare at each of them in disbelief. Kula blushed a little when she saw him continue to stare at them and was glad to see that their hard work had paid off.

"Beautiful" Simba said with a small chuckle, and watched as they all chuckled themselves a bit.

"Well we were going to go show our mothers since you left us" Nala said with a playfully annoyed tone, and watched as Simba smiled nervously knowing he purposely snuck away after purposely distracting them.

"But I'm back now" Simba said, hoping that he wouldn't be in as much trouble with her if she knew he intended to come back all along.

"Well, we'll be showing off to our mothers in the meantime. See you back at Pride Rock" Nala said with a smile as she and the other girls passed by him, kissing him on the way out and made it sound more like a command telling him to be at Pride Rock when they were done.

Simba smiled as she left, finding her humor and playfully commanding attitude to be funny. Simba signed a little, before walking out of his hideout to do what he spent most of his life doing. Walking and thinking.

Upon exiting his hideout, Simba got on a trail and saw that Ariya and Mapenzi were walking away from Pride Rock in the distance, with Mapenzi more running and trying to get Ariya to love faster who was only walking. Simba could tell that Ariya wasn't having a good day and her younger sister was seeming to be pushing her over the limit, and with her having to watch her made it look like Ariya was ready to break.

"Come on! Faster!" Mapenzi said, turning around and running back to Ariya, only to turn right back around and run ahead once she got to her. Mapenzi did this over and over again while Ariya continued to walk at her normal pace with a stoic look on her face.

"Ariyaaa!" Mapenzi wined, wondering why she was going to slow.

"Mapenzi, quiet down. We don't know who else is out here" Ariya said, not wanting to start something with another animal over all the noise Mapenzi was making.

"But you're going too slow" Mapenzi wined.

"No, you're going to fast" Ariya said, continuing to walk at a normal pace.

"No! Come on, the sun is going to set before we even get a chance to play and then we haft to go back. Mommy said we had to" Mapenzi wined, wishing Ariya would hurry up since there were only a few hours of daylight left.

"No, you haft to go back. I'm allowed to stay out after dark" Ariya said with a smirk.

"You're mean" Mapenzi said, walking up and pushing Ariya which had little effect on her since she was prepared for it and older than her.

"I'm trying to be nice and take you to play" Ariya said, wondering why Mapenzi couldn't be thankful.

"No you're not! You're going extra slow so you will only have to play less" Mapenzi said with a glare.

"Mapenzi just st-" "Hey" Simba said, cutting off Ariya before their argument got any more serious. Simba watched as both girls turned around and met him with a smile, before looking back over at each other and glaring slightly.

"Hey" Ariya said, walking up to nuzzle him and watched as Mapenzi cut in front of her and bear her to it. Ariya growled a little when Mapenzi did, and watched as Mapenzi had a smug grin on her face.

"Guys come on. Be nice to each other!" Simba said, gently pushing Mapenzi back to let her know he was serious. "All you guys have done all day is argue with each other. Your mother just risked her life to bring you here to have a better life and all you do to repay her is to give her more trouble. If you can't be nice for your own sake, then be nice for her. This is the first time in a while that she gets to see both of you again and not even one day after you get here you guys are fighting" Simba said, wondering why they couldn't be nice to each other.

"It's her not me!" Mapenzi said, pointing her paw at Ariya and giving her all the blame.

"That's a lie and you know it" Ariya said, slapping her paw out of the hair and heard Mapenzi yelp.

"This is what I mean! All you do is argue. And I agree with her Ariya, it is your fault" Simba said, and watched as Ariya wore a shocked and hurt expression.

"What? How can you say that after all we've been through…" Ariya said in a hurt tone, wondering how Simba was siding against her.

"Because it's true. You're not sticking up for your little sister and trying to encourage her to make new friends. Get her to talk to Nala, Tama, and Kula. Kula loves to do this stuff with people, and maybe if Mapenzi knew that she would be asking Kula and not you" Simba said, wondering what happened to the gentle and caring Ariya he knew when he left the Riverside Pride.

"Why does she always get the special treatment? Do I just not matter anymore?" Ariya asked, wondering how everyone so far was standing up for Mapenzi and not her.

"Because she's your little sister, and as her big sister it's your job to take care of her, especially now" Simba said, and watched as tears started to stream out of Ariyas eyes, confusing him as to what made her breakdown.

"I get that but don't I ever matter! Ever since she was born mom always looked after her! Not me! Every time something bad happens to her it's somehow always my fault! Every time she does something mom always says how proud she is of her, and never does for me. Mom has always favored you over me!" Ariya said sobbing.

Simba stood there with a shocked look on his face, and watched as Mapenzi seemed to be cowering behind his arm, apparently frightened at the idea of her older sister crying.

"You're mother loves you Ariya. Just as much as she loves your sister. She sent you here to protect you Ariya" Simba said, waking up to her and gently nuzzling into her.

"I never said she didn't! She justs loves her more than me! She's always given her more attention and now she wants me to help her in making Mapenzi feel special because my feelings don't matter but hers do!" Ariya said, feeling his nuzzle and burying herself into his mane.

"Ariya you're just upset and over exaggerating things. Your mother would die for you" Simba said, wondering why she thought that her mother didn't love her as much.

"It's true Simba, it's true! I always try and show her all the amazing things I can do but she never has time for me since she's already doing things with her! I try so hard to please her but she never notices!" Ariya said, collapsing into Simbas' arms.

"Ariya stop. I know you think that, but Mapenzi is… different than you. She needs more care compared to you when you were her age and your mother can't do everything at once. I know it may seem like she favors her over you but she's not ignoring you or making Mapenzi your replacement" Simba said, picking Ariya up and letting her support herself again.

Simba felt Ariya continue to cry, and looked over to see that Mapenzi had a scared look on her face, confused as to what was going on.

"Find your mother, now" Simba said, knowing that Alana would be back at Pride Rock by now, and knew that Mapenzi could get back on her own since all she had to do was follow this trail back. Simba watched as Mapenzi quickly nodded, and took off running after their mother, wondering what was wrong with Ariya.

Simba continued to try and calm her down, but nothing seemed to be working. Simba continued to hold on to her and give her comforting affectionate nuzzles to calm her down, hoping that Mapenzi would be back soon.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

After holding onto her for several minutes, and having no success in calming her down, Simba was looking down that trial and finally saw Alana sprinting over to them with a concerned look on her face, and went to looking sick up seeing Ariya.

"What happened?!" Alana asked frantically running up to them and inspecting her daughter to see if she was attacked or something. Alana had been peacefully sleeping when Mapenzi frantically woke her up saying that something had happened to Ariya and she was in serious trouble.

"She got into an argument with Mapenzi and when I went to calm them down, she broke down sobbing saying how you favored Mapenzi over her and always cared more about Mapenzi than her" Simba said, breaking her hug with Ariya and quickly handing her off to her mother where she wrapped her back into a hug with a horrified look on her face.

"Ariya, how could you ever say that?! Sending you away was the hardest thing I've ever done and I've always loved you!" Alana said, wondering how Ariya could possibly believe that.

"It's true! You always stand up for her and punish me! No matter what I did there was always a way I could have been better! I always wanted to make you proud but you were always focusing on her!" Ariya said, burying her face into her mother's neck and continuing to sob.

"Ariya none if that's true. I don't favor her over you she just requires more attention and care than you. You know this. She's jealous of you Ariya. Every time you showed me something to make me proud she always tried to do the same. No matter how hard she tried she just couldn't compete with you. She would always cry and tell me how she was a failure and I thought she was weak. I told her I never thought she was weak. I told her you were her older sister and that all those amazing things you could do was to protect her in life and that it didn't matter whether she was weak or not since you would always be there for her because you love her. I don't love her anymore or any less than I love you. I'm forced to show her so much attention because she refuses to believe that I'm proud of her. I never ignored you when you showed me all of those things. I was proud but at the same time I had to comfort your sister and tell her that it was ok that you could do all those things and she couldn't. You're confused Ariya, I understand. But please don't start jumping to conclusions" Alana said. Alana heard as Ariya continued to cry into her neck but it seemed as she was starting to calm down, and Alana was glad for that.

"Ariya, I know it's hard being the older sibling because your parents are going to expect you to set a good example for the younger one who usually looks up to you. I love you Ariya. More than you'll ever know. I never meant to put you in this situation and I never wanted to haft to show Mapenzi the extra attention she needs. But know that you do matter and I would never do any of those things" Alana said, and felt Ariya start to calm down a fast pace, and was happy to see she was able to calm her down.

"I always thought there was something about her that I didn't have and because of that you liked her more" Ariya said, cuddling into her mother for the first time in months.

"Of course not sweetheart" Alana said, licking the top of Ariyas head and felt as she squirmed a little at how it felt uncomfortable which made her laugh. "And even if there was you're my daughter Ariya. I have, and will always love you no matter what" Alana said, nuzzling into her daughter.

"I know" Ariya said, enjoying the warmth she got from her mother's coat.

"I'm sorry that life's been hard for you Ariya, but it's made you strong. If you ever need to talk about it, I'm always here for you and I know Simba is" Alana said, looking up and expecting to see him, but was confused when she didn't. Alana looked around and saw that he was laying down at a tree in the distance, clearly visible but out of hearing range to give them their privacy. Alana was touched by the fact that he thought to give them a special moment to feather even though she didn't care if he heard their conversation or not.

"I've just missed you so much and now we're finally together again but I was hoping for more affection is all" Ariya said with a sigh.

"I know" Alana said with a sigh of her own. "I've missed you too but ya moving has stressed Mapenzi out and she needs me… so do you… and unfortunately I can only do so much at once" Alana said with a frown.

"It's why I need to step up and be the sister I haven't been to Mapenzi" Ariya said, looking up at her mother and watched as she had a proud look on her face.

"Now that's my girl" Alana said, and watched as Ariya chuckled a little.

"I should probably go and make sure Mapenzi knows I'm ok" Ariya said, pulling back but felt her mother pull her in again.

"Don't rush yourself Ariya. I can tell her if you don't want to" Alana said, and watched as Ariya smiled a bit.

"It's ok. I should probably also apologized to her as well and take her out to play as I promised" Ariya said, licking the tops of her paws and rubbing the tear stains off her face. Ariya was attempting to wash the tear stains out of her eyes when she felt her mother start to groom the areas around her face causing her to squinch her face a little and release a small chuckle as it tickled.

"Thank you" Alana said, glad to see that Ariya was willing to help her. Alana felt Ariya nuzzle into her and she returned her nuzzle, before feeling her pull back and watched as she made her way back to Pride Rock.

Alana smiled as she watched her daughter walk away, surprised that she calmed down so quickly and was able to adjust her attitude in a manner of minutes, before looking over at Simba to see that he had fallen asleep by the looks of things, and knew that now was the perfect time to tell him something she should have told him long ago.

"Simba" Alana said upon walking over to him, and watched as he opened his eyes and looked up at her.

"How's Ariya" Simba said, standing up but felt Alana push him back down, and wondered what she wanted.

"Good. She's going to talk when Mapenzi and hopefully things will be much better between them. I need to talk to you though" Alana said, and watched as Simba nodded his head. "I just need you to listen until the end… and please forgive me if I start to cry" Alana said, knowing what she had to say might cause her to breakdown. Alana watched as he nodded his head, and laid down next to him and rested his head in her lap and began to brush the fur on his cheek while he looked up at her.

"I can't thank you enough for everything Simba. You've saved my life, the life of my cub, gave me and my family a safer home, emotionally supported my daughters and just so much more. You're just so kind and gentle. You respect and listen to people whether they're and girl or boy, cub or adult, king or commoner. I just can't express my thanks and gratitude to you Simba. I… if there's anything, and I mean anything I can do to repay you, please let me know" Alana said, watching as he looked up at her from between her paws and she softly brushed his fur.

"You're welcome. My past has sorta helped me with all that… but I'm glad I could help and you don't haft to repay me. Your daughters are amazing and I would be willing to pay you just to spend time with them" Simba said, and watched as Alana smile at him.

"I… I don't even know what to say" Alana said, feeling so grateful for what Simba had done that she wasn't even sure what to call the feeling in her chest.

"I just wanted to help. I was never expecting you to pay me back" Simba said, wondering why Alana wanted to pay him back so badly when her joining his pride benefited him so much.

Simba watched as Alana chuckled a little and just shook her head with a smile on her face, probably confused with the logic he used. Simba watched as she looked down at him with a black face, before slowly standing back up and helping him up.

"I should probably go make sure my daughters ok" Alana said, nuzzling into him and felt him return her nuzzle. Simba felt Alana slowly pull away, before turning around and walking back to Pride Rock to make sure nothing else was wrong.

Simba turned his attention back to the Pride Lands and saw something that caught his eye. A single hyena was running across the savanna with haste, and Simba couldn't make out if it was Jason or some other rouge hyena. Simba saw something else move in his vision and focused on an entire clan of hyenas, having to be at least a dozen and a half of not more chasing the hyena, and had a good idea as to who the hyena was and why they were chasing him...

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Jason was currently running through the Pride Lands on a very exposed route in the hopes that either Simba or a member of his pride would see the clan of hyenas behind him and would be able to help him in some way. Luckily Jason had been expecting something like this to happen and had spent most of his free time planning complex routes he could run with ease with slowing the other hyenas down with the terrain.

Upon turning a sharp corner and hearing the sounds of the hyenas struggle to keep up as they all collided into each other, Jason saw Simba running down the trail in front of him and smiled that his plan worked. Jason watched as Simba slowed down upon getting towards him with a curious look of why an entire clan was behind him.

"Long story short they're not happy I killed their leader" Jason said, and watched as Simba rolled his eyes.

"So what's your plan?" Simba asked, wondering how he was going to get rid of all of them.

"You" Jason said, knowing well enough they knew who Red Mane was and what he was capable of doing to hyenas and would back down.

"Great" Simba said, wondering if that many hyenas would still be frightened of him or if they would still attack because of their superior numbers.

"Jason!" A hyena in the front said as they all rounded the corner, and stopped suddenly when they saw who he was. "So, you've been plotting with the enemy this whole time! I should have expected a coward like you would hide behind a brute like him" the hyena said with hatred in his voice.

"Hey, just because I picked the winning team doesn't make me a coward" Jason said in a taunting manner, and watched as the hyena snarled.

"I'll make sure you choke on those words when I kill you!" The hyena said, and getting into a fighting stance. "Attack!" He said, and looked from side to side as everyone stood still with slightly frightened looks on their faces. "Don't just stand there you idiots! I said attack!" He yelled a little louder this time, and Simba watched as they all began to throw themselves at Jason and him in an uncontrolled manner.

Simba braces himself for the small army coming his way, wondering how he wanted to go about him. Upon reaching him, Simba took a step forward and watched as they all started to slow down and leaned back, obviously afraid of him. Knowing he had the upper hand, Simba began to charge at them and watched as they all turned tail and began to retreat.

Simba continued to chase them, before noticing a few hyenas in the corner of his eyes moving towards him to flank him, and quickly immobilized them before continuing to chase the others. Simba watched as their leader stood in front of them blocking them from going forward, barking at them to turn around and fight, and watched as they all started to turn back around and run towards him.

Simba slammed into the wall of hyenas, taking out several of them just with the force of hitting them alone, and started grabbing at incoming paws and snapping them, before swinging them around and throwing them into other hyenas. Simba was distracted catching a hyena that attempted to flank him, when he felt a paw slammed into his forehead and felt it claw across the head.

Simba quickly dropped the hyena who tried to flank him, and glared over at the hyena who clawed him to see that he had a smirk on his face, before dropping it with a look of fear after realizing what he had done. Simba quickly grabbed the hyena and threw him face-first into a rock not far away, and watched as he slowly dragged his face across the rock as he fell to the ground.

Simba turned back around and watched as six hyenas stood in front of him all contemplating whether or not they should strike. "Who's first" Simba said, getting into stance, and watched as one quickly turned around and ran away, leaving only five left. Simba watched as one charged at him full speed, and Simba slammed his paw into the hyenas face, knocking him out instantly and let his body slide past him, all while remaining eye contact with the other four hyenas to intimidate them.

Simba watched as they all turned tail and ran as he expected, and saw the leader of the clan out of the corner of his eye trying to flank him, and felt him bite his paw as Simba tried to block him. Simba felt the hyena latch on with his jaws, and Simba simply twisted his arm just short of breaking, and held it there.

"I can do this all day. How about you?" Simba asked, wondering when the leader would give up from the pain. Simba watched as he looked to be in extreme pain, and finally felt him let go after a short few seconds of pain.

Simba quickly followed up by throwing him at another hyena, knocking them both out as they collided heads. Simba looked around and saw that the remaining few had all fled and one was attempting to crawl away after having had his leg broken by Simba.

Simba walked up to the crawling hyenas and watched as it attempted to go faster in order to escape him, but it was no use. Simba picked the hyena up and held him up against a rock and watch as he looked down at him with a fearful look.

"Can you do me a favor?" Simba asked, and watched as he shook his head. "Could you tell your buddies back at base that today was only a warning, and that if this happens again they better learn to hold their breath for a while since they'll be finishing for your bodies at the bottom of a lake. Can you tell them that?" Simba said with an amused smile. Simba watched as the hyena shook his head again, and let him down. Simba quickly hit the hyena in his broken leg, realigning the bone so it would heal faster and make the journey home easier. Simba watched as he quickly ran away, never once looking back.

"Well that went well" Jason said, dropping the body of a hyena that he had knocked out with a blood joke.

"It was only well if killing their leader was for a good reason" Simba said, hoping Jason had either gotten good information or killed someone would be a pain in the future, otherwise this was all for nothing.

"Course. Get the leader to give me information, then kill him, then beat up his clan, and then the word about the leader giving information doesn't reach scar and he doesn't know what intel we have" Jason said, and watched as Simba had a slightly surprised face as to how thought out Jason's plan was.

"What kind of information?" Simba asked.

"Where I can find the next guy I need to interrogate and kill" Jason said, and watched as Simba wore a not so surprised face this time.

"Well then have fun" Simba said, wanting to wash his cuts out and figure out how he was going to explain all of this to the girls back at Pride Rock.

"Hey, so you're not mad about any of this?" Jason asked, wondering if Simba would be mad that he brought all these Hyenas into his home.

"Nope. Just do me a favor and pick up their bodies" Simba said, not wanting them to wake up in the pride lands. Simba watched as Jason grumbled a bit, before starting to drag a body in the direction from where they came.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was sitting at the waterhole next to a smaller puddle washing away the blood on his fur, some being his own and some being the blood of the hyenas. Simba continued to wash out the cuts on his arm, some of them he didn't even know he had gotten, and the cut of his forehead that stung a little, turning the little puddle of water a blood red color. Upon finishing, Simba turned around and began to walk back to Pride Rock to explain how he obtained his new wounds and wondered how he was going to explain this in a way that wouldn't make the girls freak out.

Upon entering Pride Rock, Simba saw that there was no one inside which was nice, but still meant he would haft to explain sooner or later since it was nearing sunset and the girls would be back soon.

Simba laid down in his usually spot of Pride Rock to sleep while he waited for the girls to return, wondering what they would think. Normally it wouldn't be too big of a deal and they would all be normal after a few days, but his father had recently died and not a day later he was in a conflict with hyenas which would definitely rattle their nerves a little.

Simba was peacefully resting inside Pride Rock when he heard someone trot up to him and tap him with their muzzle. Simba opened his eyes to see that Nala was standing in front of him either a confused and nervous expression on her face, probably both, and knew that she wanted answers.

"Some hyenas entered the pride lands after hearing the news of my father to try and claim it for themselves, and I stopped them" Simba said, twisting the story so she wouldn't find out about Jason and their plan. Simba felt as Nala licked his forehead a few times before laying down in front of him.

"I… you look terrible" Nala said, observing how he tried to wash the blood off on him but missed multiple spots and his fur was slightly messed up again.

"I know" Simba said, starting to put his head down again but felt Nala quickly place her paw under it and lift it back.

"Oh no you don't" Nala said, and watched as Simba groaned. "Now sit still and this won't take as long" Nala said as she began to groom him and felt as he kept resisting her.

"No" Simba said as he rolled over, and felt Nala stand up and walk over him, before continuing to groom him.

"Yes. You need to set a good example for yourself as king" Nala said, and watched as he rolled his eyes.

"Come on" Simba said as he tried to stand up, and felt Nala climb on top of him in an attempt to stop him.

"Nope" Nala said, continuing to groom him and watched as Tama and Kula walked in the cave to see her grooming him and the new cuts he had, and walked over to assist her.

"As king I hereby order you to stop" Simba said, and felt as Tama and Kula begin to groom him as well.

"Sorry but no" Kula said and she groomed the side of his face, and felt him relax and lay down in submission.

Simba continued to lie down as he felt Nala lay I top of him grooming the top of head and neck, while Kula and Tama laid on both sides of him grooming the sides of his face. Simba continued to feel them do this before feeling a new person start grooming the front of his face and opened his eyes slightly to see that Ariya has now joined in if his torture and saw Mapenzi sitting behind her with a slightly confused look in her face.

"Alrighty" Simba heard Nala say as she climbed off of him and felt Tama and Kula stand up as well.

"Finally" Simba shad, glad that they had finished their pointless grooming session.

"Wait" Ariya said as he began to walk away, and watched as he turned around and looked at her with a confused look. "Look up" Ariya said, and watched as he did.

Simba looked up wondering if there was something new about the ceiling of the cave, and felt her begin to groom the underside of his chin and neck, and sighed loudly as he had fallen for her trick. Simba stood still as she continued to groom away, and watched as Sarafina, Alana, Matimba, and Khanya walked into Pride Rock to see all the girls huddled around him and having a grooming sessions. Simba watched as they all smiled and chuckled as they spotted him, and Simba stood there with a defeated look on his face.

"All done" Ariya said, proud of her work. Ariya watched as Simba began to turn around, before once again stopping him from leaving. Simba looked at her, wondering what could possibly be in need of grinning after there was no way they missed a spot.

Simba watched as she began to lean up to groom his ears as they had apparently missed that part, and Simba quickly shuffled to the side and ran over to where the mothers were talking and huddled in between Sarafina and Matimba, and felt as they both cuddled into him in a motherly manner, and Ariya gave him an annoyed look as he was using mommy base to escape her.

Simba felt Sarafina and Matimba nuzzle into him and also slightly groom him as well, but it was definitely better than having to be stuck with the girls and their seemingly endless amount of grooming.

"Hiding?" Sarafina asked, watching as the girls looked at him with annoyed looks.

"Yea" Simba said, not wanting to deal with their cuddlish ways and finding their attitudes to be funny.

"You know you'll have to face them at some point" Khanya said, knowing that the girls wouldn't let up until they had their way and they could be very patient and persistent when it came to Simba.

"Oh yea, I know" Simba said, wanting to be able to enjoy the fact that he could escape them for the time being.

"So how did you obtain your newest set of cuts" Matimba asked, observing the young king and the various cuts and scrapes on his legs and head.

"Ran into some hyenas causing some trouble" Simba said, technically not lying when he said that. Simba watched as they all gave him some uneasy looks, probably wondering if the same people who kill Mufasa tried to take a stab at Simba today.

"Why kind of trouble?" Sarafina asked, wondering what the hyenas were up to since they never entered the pride lands unless they had a clear motive.

"Invading to take over I guess" Simba said, watching from the corner of his eye as Tama and Nala we're slowly sneaking around the group of mothers while they were distracted to get to him.

"Did you recognize any of them?" Alana asked, wondering if he was at all familiar with these hyenas since there had been several instances in his life where he fought hyenas.

"No, just a random clan that shouldn't be coming back any time soon" Simba said, watching as Tama and Nala continued to sneak around behind him unaware that he knew what they were up to.

"Maybe sending the other males on periodic patrols would benefit the safety of our borders" Matimba suggested, knowing that Simba was a new king and giving him the advice to help him out.

"Good idea" Simba said in a suspicious voice as he was watching Nala and Tama, alerting the mothers that something was up. The mothers quickly followed his line of sight to see that Nala and Tama were attempting to sneak around them and reclaim Simba, and watched as they froze when they made eye contact with them.

"Hey…" Tama said awkwardly after realizing they had been caught.

"Would the Queen and Princess like an audience with their King?" Sarafina said with a hint of humor in her voice, making it known to Nala and Tama that all they had to do was simply ask.

"Oh… uh why yes" Nala said, standing up along with Tama and smirking at Simba who was wearing a defeated expression.

"Good luck" Matimba whispered as her and the other mothers got up leaving Simba defenseless against the two lionesses.

Simba watched as they stared at him with smirks on their faces as he remained lying down, wondering when they were going to move in and continue their various methods of masculine torture. Simba began to slowly stand up, and watched as both moved in immediately to intercept him, and within a second they both had him pinned on the ground and were nuzzling into him.

"Ok fine, you win" Simba said, relaxing and letting them enjoy their moment.

"Follow me" Nala said with a playful smile on her face, and watched as Simba got up and began to follow her. "Sorry but my turn" Nala said, knowing that Tama had already had her alone time with him today. Nala watched as Tama sat there with a bummed out look on her face causing Nala to chuckle a little, glad that she still had full control over him. With that, Simba followed Nala out of the cave as she was practically trotting out in excitement.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was currently chasing Nala through the pride lands wondering where she was going or what she was planning. Simba continued to chase her at a slow speed for a while as they increased their distance to pride rock, before Nala suddenly turned around and started running towards Simba.

Simba attempted to slow down, but felt Nala gently run into him and pin him in the ground. Simba looked up to see that Nala had a mischievous look on her face and realized exactly what her plan was.

"It's been a while hasn't it?" Simba asked as Nala leaned down and kissed him, before falling down onto him and rolling off to the side, before snuggling into his warm and soft fur.

"I've been waiting all day for this" Nala said with a purr, and felt Simba nuzzle into her causing her heart to nearly melt.

"I can tell" Simba said, rolling over and pinning her under him and beginning to kiss her. Simba felt Nala use an advanced move to flip the Lin on him that she definitely learned from her hunting lessons, and Simba chuckled a little at how determined she was to have her fun.

"Don't forget who's in charge" Nala said with a purr, and felt as Simba wrapped his arms around her and pulled her down.

"Who's that?" Simba said with a smile, licking her cheek before placing a kiss on her muzzle.

"Me" Nala purred, relaxing and laying on top of his soft and warm chest.

"Thought so" Simba said, and felt Nala stand back up and watched as she playfully swatted at the side of his face, and Simba stood up to watch as she threw herself at him, and Simba caught her in a hug.

"I love you" Nala said, falling into Simba and felt him fall over and still protectively hold onto her as they layer on their sides cuddling into each other.

"I love you too" Simba said, and felt Nala purr and she nuzzled into him.

"Do you know why I love doing that?" Nala asked, knowing she had told Simba before but wanted to know if he remembered.

"Because I always catch you and we end up snuggling at the end" Simba said, knowing she had said something along those lines. Simba felt Nala scoot up and place a gentle kiss on his muzzle giving him a smile.

"So you do remember" Nala said, glad to see that he still remembered what she had told him all that time ago. Nala watched as Simba smiled a little and licked the side of her face, and she returned his affectionate gesture.

"Of course" Simba said, wondering how Nala thought he would someone manage to forget one of the things she told him that she loved to do.

"Why do you love me?" Nala asked with a smile so he didn't think she was questioning his heart, but only wanted to know what he saw inside her that drove him to love her so much. Nala watched as he seemed to have a somewhat surprised look on his face clearly having been unprepared for the question she asked.

"Everything, but knowing how you, that's not good enough. You need specifics" Simba started, and watched as Nala chuckled a little as she continued to nuzzle and cuddle into him to remove the other girls' scent. "I love your smile, fur, voice, personality, eyes, and… just everything there is to love about a person" Simba said, and watched as Nala smiled.

"You've changed so much since I first met you" Nala said, changing the subject unexpectedly as always, and watched as Simba wore a slightly confused face which she found to be cute. "The Simba I remember when I first met was so shy and timid that me nearly brushing up against him would cause him to shut down for a whole hour" Nala said, and watched as Simba smiled a little. "He was so confused all the time which basically meant all you could get cuteness, and I had so much fun teaching him everything he wasn't taught" Nala added, and watched as Simba chuckled a little this time.

"Like raising a cub" Simba said with a small chuckle, and watched as Nala smiled a little, before dropping her smile and replacing it with a much more serious look, and Simba knew exactly what was going through her mind.

"Would you ever want to raise a cub? Teach them everything there was to know?" Nala asked, and watched as Simba also wore a more serious look.

"Yea… one day" Simba said with a smile, and watched as Nala had a slightly doubtful look on her face making him wonder why she was acting so strange all of a sudden.

"Simba…" Nala said, sitting up to let him know that she was being serious, and watched as he followed her lead. "I don't feel like you're being honest to me" Nala said with an upset look on her face.

"I would never lie to you" Simba said with a reassuring smile, telling her the truth as he would never do something to hurt her.

"Hiding part of the truth also isn't lying, but it still feels the same" Nala said, and watched as Simba dropped his smile and wore a slightly defeated look, letting Nala know that she was right about him hiding part of the truth. "Please just tell me what's wrong. Every time I bring the discussion up you always just say yes with a fake smile and try to move past it" Nala said, and watched as Simba wore a slightly guilty face. "It doesn't haft to be… with me... but you're the only id ever one with" Nala said, letting him know it didn't haft to be with her but it meant a lot to her and she wanted to know the whole truth.

"I…" Simba sighed, and watched as Nala was wearing a very curious and pleading face. "I want to have a cub with you and I'm not scared of… well making it or being a father… I just… what if what happened to my mother happens to you. It can't be stopped, predicted, or prevented in anyway. I just don't want to haft to raise a cub and live the rest of my life knowing that they would never… truly… meet their mother" Simba said, and watched as Nala released a slightly relieved sigh and had an understanding look on her face.

"Thank you" Nala said, finally glad she knew that Simba wanted to have a cub with her but was just scared that she might suffer the same fate as his mother.

"I just… can't risk losing you…" Simba said with a helpless look on his face and felt Nala lift his head up with her paw.

"I'll… talk to my mother about it tomorrow… but it's the first time something like that had ever happened for as long as anyone can remember. I'm sure it was a very rare occurrence and is very unlikely to happen again" Nala said, knowing that many people had given birth just fine before and something like that never happened.

"I know… I just can't imagine life without you" Simba said, wondering how it would be if Nala was removed from the picture.

"I can't imagine life without you either, but I also can't imagine never having a cub either" Nala said, wishing his life wasn't so bad so he wouldn't be afraid to have a cub, but then again if it wasn't, things would have played out much differently.

"I know" Simba said with a defeated look on his face, and watched as Nala chuckled a little.

"You're so cute" Nala said as she nuzzled into him, changing the topic once again.

"Where have I heard that before" Simba said with a smile, glad she had changed the topic and still wondered what the girls found so cute about him.

"Just thought I'd save you from that topic, but you also do look cute" Nala said as she licked the underside of his chin.

"Yea…" Simba said, staring into Nalas eye and almost being able to see into her soul and could tell that she was doing the same to him. Simba watched as she slowly began to lean up, and followed her lead to be drawn into a deep and passionate kiss and felt her push him over and pin him against the ground.

Simba felt Nala break for air, and watched as she smiled down at him, before falling onto him and rolling off him once again as she had done countless times before.

"Want to head back? It's getting kind of late" Nala said, before licking Simbas seeing that they had missed a spot when they were grooming him.

"Whatever you want" Simba said, not caring what they did so long as Nala was happy.

"We should probably get back. Not only will our aunts wonder where we are I also sorta stole you away when Tama and Kula wanted to have their fun" Nala said with a chuckle, remembering the playfully annoyed look she earned from Tama when she led Simba out of Pride Rock.

"Aren't I yours though?" Simba asked with a playful tone, knowing that Nala was willing to share him but at the end of the day he was her lion and she had power over what he was allowed to do in terms of having fun with other females.

"Of course, but I don't mind sharing" Nala said, kissing Simba as she stood up. Nala watched as Simba followed her lead, and once up she kissed him again and watched as he smiled.

"Why not? Am I too much for just one lioness?" Simba asked teasing her a little, and watched as she walked around him a few times, before gently grabbing his ear with her mouth and began to gently nibble on it with a playful growl.

"Trust me" Nala said, dropping his ear and walking under his head as she forced it up with a nuzzle. "I can handle you" Nala said, "but what I can't handle is a moody Tama and a bored Kula" Nala said with a smile, knowing that Simba was always the cure for those two things.

"Not even if I were to say… kiss them?" Simba asked in a taunting but playful voice, releasing a small purr at the end, and watched as Nala released a playful growl in response.

"That wouldn't make you jealous would it?" Simba asked in a confused but playful manner. "Would walking in on the love of your life sharing a kiss with another girl not upset you?" Simba asked, and watched as she wore a mischievous smile.

"Of course not. Gotta let the other girls have some fun, but if I did walk in, I would only politely steal the kiss from them and let them watch as I showed them who's boss" Nala said, kissing his jaw.

"That's a dangerous game" Simba said, chuckling a little as he nuzzled into Nala, and heard her release a long purr in response as she leaned into him.

"A game I'm good at" Nala said, licking the side of his face and pulling away. "We should get back. It's getting late and it's been a long day" Nala said, feeling a little tired and was ready to make herself comfortable for the night snuggled into his fur.

"Lead the way" Simba said, and watched as Nala pushed him back slightly and took off trotting it the direction of Pride Rock, and Simba quickly caught back up to her and felt her nuzzle into him. Simba returned her playful nuzzle and continued to nuzzle her the whole way back to Pride Rock.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Upon entering the den, Simba saw Tama and Kula in the back of the cave with tired and impatient looks on their faces, and watched as their faces lit up upon seeing him return. Simba looked over to see that Sarafina was also up and upon eye contact, she smiled at him before closing her eyes and letting her head fall, also having been waiting for him to return.

Upon walking up to his sisters, Simba felt Kula place her paws on his mane and gently pulled him down, and Simba collapsed into her lap. Simba felt Kula nuzzle into him and also felt Tama show him some affection as well, and laughed a little at how there were acting.

Simba watched as Tama collapsed into his chest, stealing Nalas spot before she could claim it, and snuggled into his chest. Simba saw Tama giving Nala a smug grin as she did this, probably payback for stealing him earlier in the night when she wanted to spend time with him, and watched as Nala purposely stepped on Tamas tail as she walked over her to lay on top of Simba. Simba felt Tama squirm a bit and release a small growl, and gently hugged her to settle her down.

Simba felt all the girls shift around until finding a position that was comfortable for them, and looked down at Tama who was snuggled into his chest and wearing a smile, causing him to smile as well.

" _Mom?" Simba called out, wondering if she would call back or be busy since his father had just joined her in the clouds above._

" _Yes?" Sarabi asked, sensing conflict within him, knowing he was seeking some wisdom._

" _Can we talk?" Simba asked, glad to hear her familiar voice and know she was still with him._

" _We already are" Sarabi asked, wondering what Simba meant by that._

" _Face to face?" Simba asked, wanting to be able to see her when he was talking to her since only being able to hear her voice was weird for him at times._

 _Upon saying this, Simba felt himself start to feel weightless and felt a tired feeling wash over him, and let it carry him away…_

 **(Dreamscape, Simba… Third Person)**

 _Simba opened his eyes and was a little confused to see that he was in the clouds but it appeared as if it were day. Simba looked around for his mother, before realizing she had to do the classic appear behind him as always which apparently had to be some rule for spirit beings._

" _You're behind me aren't you" Simba said with a smile, turning around to see his mother sitting before him with a smile._

" _As always" Sarabi said, wondering why Simba wanted to talk to her, but didn't want to invade his privacy. "Why did you want to see me?" Sarabi asked, knowing it had been some time since SImba was up hear and she knew that he preferred to talk to her in his head rather than face to face._

" _I don't know… I was just confused and was looking for some answers" Simba said, wondering if his mother would be able to help him at all. Simba watched as his mother gave him a doubtful smile, and knew what was coming._

" _You know I can't give you the answers to your life" Sarabi said, knowing she had said it before, and watched as Simba nodded his head._

" _I know… I've just been thinking a lot in my free time I've had with the girls trapping me inside Pride Rock and I've realized that your last words were so… not you" Simba said, and watched as his mother gave him a confused look. "Uhh… Philosophical? Not like you… uh… I don't know" Simba added, and watched as his mother chuckled a little._

" _You're going to stress yourself out if you think to much Simba. In fact, it seems like you already have. I'll admit my last words weren't what you would have expected from a person like me, and I'm sure your aunt will talk with you about it in the morning since she has been wondering the same thing for over a year now, but you need to rest" Sarabi said, and watched as Simba wore a slightly disappointed look._

" _But I'm asleep" Simba said, wondering what she meant when she said he should rest since he was already asleep._

" _Rest your mind Simba. It's not healthy to live with stress in your life, and right now you need to focus on eliminating that stress from your life" Sarabi said as she walked up to Simba. "I know you're confused, but you're still young and have much to learn. When you're older, this will all make sense. Until then, keep making me proud by being the king I always knew you would become" Sarabi said with a smile, nuzzling into her son and felt him nuzzle her back._

" _Goodnight" Simba said._

" _Goodnight, my son" Sarabi said, fading away and Simba watched as he began to fall back to his body inside Pride Rock, doing everything in his power not to jolt up when he woke to prevent himself from accidentally waking the girls._

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba woke up without a start as he hoped for, and looked down to see that Tama, the lightest sleep among the girls, was still sound asleep in his embrace and let out a relieved sigh. Simba licked Tamas ear and watched as she squirmed a little in her sleep, causing him to smile, before resting his head back down and closing his eyes. Simba felt a bunch of thoughts rush through his mind as always, such as where and who was scar, what would tomorrow's troubles be, how would he talk to Sarafina about his mother in the morning, and what would the girls moods be like tomorrow, but pushed all those thoughts away, doing what his mother meant when she said to live a less stressful life since he wasn't always going to be young forever. With that, Simba felt himself drift off to sleep for the first time in a while with only peaceful thoughts in his head…

 **Ok, good enough for me. If I start another scene it's only going to be longer until I can binge-watch Disney+ without the Idea of having to have this done by Christmas. So hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, and as stated before and probably many of you have noticed, this story was a bit longer than a normal chapter, my present to you. Anyway, time for me to beg. Review, Favorite, and follow or else I'll kill everyone in the story in a horrible way such as scar coming back and starving everyone to death or something like that. (Yes, I'm just writing random shit here so we can hit 17k words, So Don't worry about it). Welp, that's all for this time. Happy holidays and Happy New Year!. Mr_Toast Out!**


	25. End of The Line

**Simba's Pain Chapter 25**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Discord: Mr_Toast#1679**

 **Story Discord: bit .ly /SimbasPain**

 **Happy new year! Even though I'll probably end up posting this at the beginning of February since I'm lazy and don't write as much as I should. Anyways, thanks for the reviews and PMs, and hope y'all are enjoying the new year so far. With that all said and done, Enjoy!**

Simba slowly woke up upon feeling someone lick the underside of his chin, and groaned slightly as he stretched out as far as he could, but felt that he was still pinned down by who he presumed to be Tama. Simba felt another lick on the underside of his chin and opened his eyes to see that Tama was looking at him with a smile on her face, slightly confusing him for a second until he remembered the events of last night.

"Morning" Tama said, getting her revenge for when he woke her up last night with the same method.

"Morning" Simba said, feeling Nala roll off of him to let him up, and slowly stood up and began stretching out. Simba watched as the other girls did the same, before playfully starting to nuzzle into him as soon as they were done.

"Isn't it a little early to be doing this?" Simba asked with a yawn, knowing the girls were usually tired and lazy when they first woke up and felt Nala give him his good morning kiss.

"It's Never early enough" Nala said with a playful tone, and watched as Simba smiled a little and shook his head at her statement.

"Well I got to get some things done now if I want any free time tonight" Simba said, beginning to turn away but felt the girls pull him back, and realized that he had forgotten to state where he was going and what he was going to do.

"What kind of things" Nala asked in a playfully suspicious voice, and watched as Simba chuckled.

"Talking to your mother. Maintaining peace in the kingdom. And making sure I have time to spend with my sisters and mate tonight" Simba said, licking the side of her face.

"Well, In that case, you better get moving" Nala said, giving him a parting kiss and playfully pushing him in the direction of her mother who was awake and tuning into there conversation.

Simba walked over to Sarafina who was greeting him with a smile and saw that Alana was also awake and greeting him with a smile of her own.

"Hey" Simba said, laying down next to him and instantly felt Sarafina wrap him into a hug and give him some motherly affection.

"Good morning" Alana said with a smile, watching how calm Simba was when Sarafina showed him some affection. "What brings you here?" Alana asked, wondering if Simba was just being friendly and wanted to say 'hi', or if he needed something.

"Just wanted to ask you for a favor" Simba said, sitting up to be eye level with her. Simba felt Sarafina reluctantly let go, and found it amusing that she still enjoyed to treat him like a cub.

"And what would that favor be?" Alana asked, wondering how she could be of service to her king.

"I was wondering if you could take Nala and Tama out today and teach them some things they might want to know since they're now a queen and princess if you have the time for it" Simba asked, and watched as Alana smiled a little.

"Of course" Alana said, surprised that he asked it as if she was still his superior and still seemed to be remaining respectful when he addressed her. Alana was speechless when it came to him sometimes. He was the king, yet he was politely asking her as if she was.

"Thanks" Simba said, glad to have a former queen in his pride as it would be beneficial for Nala and Tama. Simba watched as Alana stood up and walked over to him, nuzzling into him for a while, before pulling away and walking over to Nala and Tama who looked to already be asleep.

"Anything else you need?" Sarafina asked, and watched as Simba rolled over and look at her. Sarafina assumed that he still needed something as he hadn't left yet, and Sarafina was guessing she was right.

"Yes, actually" Simba said in a slightly nervous and unsure voice, which Sarafina picked up on. "I wanted to talk to you about my mother" Simba said, and watched as Sarafina smile faded and was replaced with a much more serious look. "I was just wondering if you thought her last words were… odd…" Simba asked, and watched as she wore a confused expression.

"How so?" Sarafina asked, wondering if he was starting to wonder the same thing she had for over a year now or if it was just another false alarm.

"I don't know… but they just didn't seem like something she would say. Nobody really talks like that. All fancy and confusing" Simba said, unsure of how to put his thoughts into words, and watched as she smiled

"I've picked up on that as well" Sarafina said, and watched as Simba seemed to be a little curious as to what she thought about it. "There's a lot about that day I don't understand, but I'm sure she said it like that for a reason" Sarafina said, and watched as Simba wore a slightly disappointed face.

"Yea…" Simba said, starting to stand up and walk away, still thinking about her last words and why they seemed to make no sense.

"Simba" Sarafina said and watched as he turned around and looked over at her. "Don't go crazy by overthinking things. Focus on what's important right now" Sarafina said, not wanting him to stress himself out over this seeing as he was only just crowned king.

"I'll try not to" Simba said with a smile, and turned around. Simba began walking out of the den to go see if anything was happening in that pridelands that he would need to deal with, and felt someone collide into him with a laugh.

"About time you wake up" Ariya said, seeing as Simba appeared to be confused as to what just happened, causing her to smile a bit more.

"It's still morning" Simba said, knowing he had woken up at the same time he always did, the only difference being that he didn't feel like getting up until Tama gave him some motivation.

"I'm just teasing you" Ariya said, giving him a playful nuzzle before continuing on her way to do whatever she did during the day. Simba watched her retreating figure with a confused and surprised look, still unsure as to what exactly just happened, before continuing to walk out towards the pride lands.

Simba placed his first paw onto the ground of the pride lands and stopped. Simba looked up and began to scan the savannah with a slightly deprived feeling in his gut. Simba knew that he was king now, but wasn't even sure what that meant. The one thing he never learned from his father was where to start when he became king. He always expected his father would have been around when that day came.

Simba continued to walk forward, thinking about things he could do that other kings would do so he at least would look proactive in his first few days. Simba walked toward the southern border, having the idea that he would just walk around for a while and something was bound to come up eventually.

After walking for a while, and noticing some other animals giving him curious looks, probably because they had learned about the king's death and were wondering if he was the new king. Simba walked by them without returning eye contact and still felt it was awkward having people stare at him.

Upon reaching the southern border, Simba began to walk along the border towards the westernmost point of his territory, looking out past the border to see if anything was coming towards his territory that he would need to deal with.

Simba continued walking until he reached the western border, continuing his circle towards the North, then the East, and then finally back to southern border having spotted nothing worth investigating. After a little over an hour since he first started, Simba found himself at the spot where he had started and looked around trying to think of what to do. Simba expected that he would have seen something that would have given him something to do for a couple of hours, yet everything was quiet, and he began to head back towards the center of the pride lands.

"Ey!" Someone said abruptly, and Simba looked around to see who said that and was left confused when he didn't see anyone. It sounded like it came from all around him, almost like it came from…

Simba felt something hit him in the top of the head from above and looked up to see Rafiki standing in a tree above him. Simba looked up at him wondering what he was doing, and went to ask before watching Rafiki through another nut as him, and quickly ducked.

"What are you doing?" Simba asked, wondering why Rafiki through the second one.

"Wat are you doin'?" Rafiki said as he jumped down from the tree and landed on the ground.

"Patrolling…" Simba asked, wondering what Rafiki was up to.

"Patrolling you say?" Rafiki said, reaching out and pulling a hair from his mane, and watched as he ran his paw over the area with a confused look on his face.

"Why are you acting so weird?" Simba asked, unable to piece anything of this together.

"Wierd? Wat is weird?" Rafiki asked, and watched as Simba just stared at him for a second.

"This" Simba asked, wondering where he was going with all of this and why he stopped him.

"How do you know if dis is weird huh? Wat if everybody else is weird and I am normal?" Rafiki asked, and watched as Simba stared at him in confusion. "Exactly!" Rafiki said chuckling. "Bye" Rafiki said, holding on to Simba's hair as he turned around and started to run towards his tree, and Simba followed him out of curiosity.

Simba watched as Rafiki quickly jumped up into his tree, and Simba followed him to see that he was sitting in front of a turtles shell, twisting his red hair from his mane with a light brown hair, making him wonder who the other hair belonged to and what he was going to do next. Upon finishing, Simba watched as he tossed it into the shell, along with was looked like to be sand, grass, the weird fruit thing he always seemed to have an endless supply of, and picked up the shell and began to mix up everything inside, making Simba wonder the point to what he was doing.

Simba watched as Rafiki placed it back on the ground, and slowly peered over the edge of the shell into the center as if he was cautious about what was inside. Simba saw Rafiki wear an intrigued face, peering closer into the shell, before looking over at him from the corner of his eyes. Simba wondered why Rafiki was now looking at him after looking inside the shell and started to think that he probably did one of those ritual things he did that nobody understood or could explain.

"Uh... What's going on?" Simba asked, wondering what Rafiki had made in his shell and why he was looking at him now.

"Shh!" Rafiki said, surprising Simba, continuing to study what was inside his shell. Simba started to wonder why Rafiki was being so secretive about what was inside and began to make his way over to take a look himself, and watched as Rafiki swiped his hand across the shell quickly, distorting and ruining whatever was in his shell.

"What was inside?" Simba asked, wondering why Rafiki didn't want him to see.

"Nothing" Rafiki said with a smile, and Simba looked at him in confusion.

"Why did you bring me up here then?" Simba asked, wondering why Rafiki brought him up here only to ruin whatever was inside the shell before he even got the chance to see.

"I didn't make you come here. You did dat yourself" Rafiki said, and watched as Simba thought about it for a second, before realizing that he was right and only ended up wasting his own time in doing so.

"Well bye" Simba said, wanting to get out of the tree before things got any more confusing than they already were. Rafiki watched as Simba exited the tree with a thoughtful look on his face, wondering if what his bowl told him was true, but only time would tell that.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Alana, Nala, and Tama were all walking down a path that led to a small stream not too far away from Pride Rock, with Nala and Tama wondering why Alana was taking them to this small stream as all they were told from her was that Simba wanted her to teach them some things.

Upon reaching the stream, Alana stepped over it but stopped the two younger lionesses from crossing. "I'm sure you're wondering why I dragged you out here and interrupted your beauty sleep" Alana said and watched as Nala and Tama agreed with her.

"King Simba has requested I train you in queenship" Alana said and watched as they both had looks of boredom written all over their faces. "It isn't that bad" Alana said with a chuckle, amused by the girl's reaction.

"I'm only a princess, and not by birth, so can I be excused?" Tama asked, wondering why she had to learn this when Nala was going to be the queen.

"A successor, if one was ever needed, must be educated in the works of a kingdom Tama. So No" Alana said and watched as she sighed. "Imagine this river was a kingdom" Alana said, motioning the girl's attention to the small river before them. "The river flows peacefully when itself and the environment around it work in harmony. But if something unexpected happens," Alana said, placing her paw in the water, causing the water to pour over the sides of the wall and flood the surrounding environment, "Everything is effected" Alana pointing out how the river stopping also affected what's around it, and if what's around it changed, the river would aswell. "This river is much like this Kingdom. Quiet and peaceful. But that doesn't mean hardship won't find it's way here since we aren't the only pride in the world. What's around us can also affect us" Alana said, pushing a small pile of dirt in the river and creating a small dam, halting the river. "While a king maintains this peace and defends the pride from such threats, a queen must also play her part in this too" Alana said, watching as the girls seemed to be confused. "While the king is out making sure our borders are safe and keep any trouble makers away, a queen should focus on the life inside the territory. As the leader of the hunting party, it is her job to make sure that we aren't over hunting and driving herds away, and that populations aren't overgrowing and taking up to much space, allowing for peace within the kingdom" Alana said, and watched as they seemed to be a little surprised by what she had said, probably not realizing the complexity of being a queen.

"So... we're supposed to keep peace on the inside, and Simba... is supposed to keep peace on the outside?" Nala asked, wondering if she was understanding Alana correctly.

"Well... yes, but it's everyone's job to maintain peace. You don't have to be a king or queen to do that, but it's the queen's responsibility to observe and act when the peace is threatened by something. The king will also do this, but he must also constantly check the area beyond our borders, and may not always pick up whats going on inside them" Alana said, hoping they would understand it better.

"Oh..." Nala said, not realizing what she meant the first time.

"So what do I do then?" Tama asked, wondering what a princess did.

"You assist in times that the queen is unable to perform her duties" Alana said, and watched as Tama nodded her head.

"Well, it's up to you to decide how you want to go about this, as no two rulers are ever the same, so I'll leave it to you to decide how you will take on being queen, but if you ever need help, I'm glad to assist" Alana said, stepping over the river and walking towards where she expected Simba to be, leaving Tama and Nala behind.

"Being queen sure does sound interesting" Nala said, and watched as Tama nodded a bit.

"I'm sure you can handle it" Tama said, and watched as Nala smiled. With that, the two girls made their way back to Pride Rock wondering when they would actually have to perform their first queenly duties.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was currently walking down a trail that he had been on for a short while wondering what Rafiki had made inside the shell and why he didn't want him to see it. Upon exiting the trail through the tall grass, Simba entered his hideout and walked over to the small pond and looked down at his reflection.

Simba had stared in this pool countless times during his life, but not that often recently. The younger version he was used to seeing was replaced by an older version that was much more mature and had a mostly grown in mane surrounding its neck. Simba chuckled a little at how much he had changed in the last few months and how he would have been unrecognizable had he been compared to himself a year ago.

Simba heard someone approaching him from behind, and look over to see the grass line shifting as someone walked through it. Simba watched as Alana emerged from the tall grass and smiled at him upon eye contact, and Simba returned her smile.

"Hey" Simba said, before looking back down at his reflection in the pond. Simba felt Alana nuzzle into the side of his mane, before sitting down next to his and resting her head into the side of his mane, looking down at his reflection aswell.

"You seem troubled" Alana said, and watched as Simba had a slightly distant look in his eyes. "This whole thing isn't too much for you is it?" Alana asked, and watched as Simba focussed again.

"No, not at all, I'm just a little tired" Simba said, and watched as Alana gave him an unsure look, and realized that she wasn't going to be as easy to play off as his sisters were.

"You seemed to have slept fine. It seems as if there's something else that's bothering you. Something on your mind that's distracting you" Alana said, knowing that feeling and knowing when someone else was feeling it.

"I uhh..." Simba said, trying to think of something quick, and then found something perfect. "I'm just not used to not having my father around. I guess I still kind of expect to see him when I walk in Pride Rock, but he's not for obvious reason... and it might take a few days before I get that out of my head" Simba said and felt Alana nuzzle into him a little.

"I'm sorry" Alana said, knowing that feeling of execting someone to be there since they had been there your whole life, and then one day they'd never be there again.

"It's fine. I'm just not sure what I should be doing right now" Simba said, and watched as Alana looked up at him with a playfully doubtful look on her face.

"You went on patrol?" Alana asked with a smile, and watched as he nodded. "No issues to attend to" Alana asked, and watched as he nodded again. "Not even the boring ones you don't want to deal with?" Alana asked, and watched as he chuckled a little this time, and nodded his head again. "Well then, the day is yours my king" Alana said and watched as his smile dropped, and wondered what was wrong.

"Simba?" Alana asked, wondering if something she had said caused his sudden change in mood.

"I'm ok... I'm just not used to being called king" Simba said, and watched as Alana smiled a bit.

"Well, whether you realize it or not, you're the king. You have all the power, no longer need permission, and can do whatever you want. That's just part of being king" Alana said, and heard Simba sigh.

"Yea... I know..." Simba said, and felt Alana grab hold on his arm, and watched as she brought it over to herself. Simba watched as Alana ran her paw over to muscle and veins in his arms as others had done in the past, before gently setting it back on the ground.

"You're afraid of change, aren't you?" Alana asked, and watched as Simba laughed a bit.

"Not afraid, but sometimes I wish it didn't happen" Simba said and watched as Alana gave a soft chuckle.

"If that's so, then would you still obey an order from Sarafina or I?" Alana asked, and watched as Simba smiled.

"Of course" Simba said and watched as she smiled.

"I know we only met a short while ago, but in that time you've always had a way of amazing me" Alana said.

"I guess the funny thing is that I never try" Simba said, finding it a little funny that he was always able to amaze people without even trying to or sometimes even wanting to.

"That's because it's who you are" Alana said, earning a curious look from Simba. "Being amazing is who you are, and you never try and be something you're not" Alana said, and noticed he still had a slightly confused face, but he was starting to understand her.

"Uh..." Simba started, unsure of how to ask the question he wanted to, and in doing so saw Alana become curious as to what he wanted to say, giving him a little confidence to ask. "When you first saw me inside your den, what was your first impression of me?" Simba asked, and watched as Alana seemed to get a little more serious.

"Well... many things. Some good and some bad" Alana said, looking back over at him to see he was curious to know more. "Relieved in a sense, but also worried" Ariya said, watching as he continued with the same look as before. "You seemed strong, trustworthy, and brave, but also a possibility of being like other males" Alana said, watching as he had a glint of guilt on his face, making her wonder why he always felt guilty when she mentioned other males.

"Didn't you see me once when I was very young?" Simba asked, remembering how she had told him she attended Sarabi's death ceremony.

"Yes, but you were so small then, and when I saw you again I half expected to be looking at the cub I saw a year ago" Alana said as she gave him a gentle and brief nuzzle. "But" Alana said and watched as Simba looked over at her. "My worries were short-lived. As we were going to the first trial you confronted those males. After having only known me for several minutes, you were willing to risk your life to defend me, and that meant a lot to me. And then with my daughter. You risked your life, and it made me trust you" Alana said, and watched as Simba had a small smile on his face.

"Yea" Simba said, not sure what to say back to her, and saw she was waiting for him to say something back and remained silent.

"What makes you protect others like that?" Alana asked, wondering what his thought process was when someone else was in danger.

"I don't know..." Simba said, and watched as she had a doubtful look on her face, making Simba think a little harder. "I... I guess I just have too. It's just... well I can't do nothing. Seeing as everyone else is scared, someone hast to do something, and every time that someone has been me" Simba said, watching as Alana smiled a bit.

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You amaze me" Alana said with a chuckle, and watched as he smiled.

"Thanks" Simba said, and felt Alana nuzzle into him.

"So, what are your plans for the rest of the day now that you're kingly duties are done" Alana said, changing the subject to give Simba a break and to not stress him out.

"Being lazy I guess. Not much to do" Simba replied, and watched as she chuckled a bit.

"Be lazy?" Alana said with a smile, finding it funny that he still acted like a small child at times despite being rather mature for his age.

"Sleep and walk around I guess" Simba said, having no idea as to what he was going to do for the rest of the day. "What were you going to do?" Simba asked, wondering what she, and the other adults did during the day since he never really saw them that often until night time.

"Scout with the other lionesses" Alana said and watched as Simba wore a face that told her he wasn't going to be exactly interested in doing that and smiled upon seeing his reaction.

"Ah" Simba said, a little unsure what to say back. "So, what exactly do you scout for" Simba asked, and watched as Alana began to start talking when he heard someone approaching them and looked over at the source of the sound, alerting her something was up.

Alana looked over and saw that someone was coming towards them, and watched as Mapenzi trotted out of the tall grass with a grin on her face and began to make her way over to her. Alana let a smile come to her face upon seeing her daughter, relieved that it wasn't anything serious and probably just want to say hello.

"Mommy" Mapenzi said as she ran up and nuzzled her mother, and felt her return the gesture.

"Sweetheart, what brings you here?" Alana said, smiling down at her daughter and watched as she playfully grabbed onto her leg and began to push and pull it around, and Alana realized that she wanted to play.

"I want to play" Mapenzi said with a smile, and watched as Alana chuckled a bit.

"Where's Ariya?" Alana asked, wondering if she had tried to play with Ariya and she didn't want to like last time.

"I've played with her all morning and I want to play with someone else" Mapenzi said, trying to trip Alana by knocking her leg out, but wasn't nearly strong enough.

"Maybe Tama or Kula would be willing to play with you" Alana said, knowing that it would also be good for her to become friends with them as it would be useful when they all got older, and watched as Mapenzi's smile faded slowly.

"Tama scares me" Mapenzi said with a slight frown and felt her mother nuzzle into her a little to cheer her up.

"Why's that?" Alana asked. Alana knew that Tama could be aggressive and angry at times, but she also knew that Tama wouldn't be mean to a cub, and if she was, she was going to put a stop to it herself.

"She looks scary. All muscular and serious" Mapenzi said, wondering why Tama appeared to be different compared to her sisters.

"That doesn't make her scary or a bad person. She's nice. Why don't you go and talk to her" Alana said with a cheerful smile to further motivate Mapenzi, knowing that Tama shouldn't have any reason to dislike Mapenzi.

"Ok" Mapenzi said with a slightly unsure look on her face, but wanted to at least try to satisfy her mother.

"I'm so proud of you" Alana said, cuddling into her daughter and feeling her snuggle into her in return.

"Thanks, mommy" Mapenzi said, breaking the cuddle and trotting off to Pride Rock to try and befriend Tama and hopefully get her to play.

Alana smiled as she watched Mapenzi disappear into the tall grass, and looked over to see that Simba was standing in the same spot as before with a blank look on her face, probably wondering what all that was about.

"She's shy" Alana said and watched as Simba looked over at her with an understanding look on his face. "I'm trying to get her to be more confident, especially since this is her new home, it's just a little hard that's all" Alana said, and watched as Simba nodded his head.

"It's alright. It will just take her some time" Simba said, and felt Alana gently nuzzle into him.

"Thank you" Alana said, grateful that he was understanding and patient when it came to Mapenzi.

"Uh-" Simba started to say, but quickly cut it off and hoped she wouldn't be curious, and looked over to see a curious look on her face, telling him that trying to act like he didn't do that wasn't an option.

"Yes?" Alana asked, wondering what he wanted to ask, and probably knew that it was something very personal and wasn't trying to be rude. At this point, Alana didn't care what he asked from or about her. He had done so much for her in the past week that she'd never be able to repay him in an entire lifetime.

"Nothing" Simba said, trying to drop the subject, and felt her gently place her paw on top of his, and knew she wasn't going to back down.

"Simba, please, it's the least I can do" Alana said, wanting him to know that she wasn't going to be mad or offended by anything he asked of her. Alana watched Simba sighed, before looking over at her and nodding his head.

"So uh... Mapenzi still suckles..." Simba started, and watched as Alana nodded her head. "But... well... how often? I've never seen her do it before" Simba said, wondering why she still needed milk at her age at all.

"Depends. I'm sure tonight she will want more than normal since she's probably going to be playing a lot, but some days when she relaxes a lot, only a little. Mainly she does it at night after you have all gone to bed, partly why she wakes up a little later than the rest of you, or sometimes if she's fatigued she'll find me during the day, but she's embarrassed about it and doesn't want people to find out" Alana said and watched as Simba slowly nodded his head.

"I just wish I knew why" Simba said, trying to think of why someone her age still needed milk but there was no logical explanation.

"Simba, I'm grateful for your concern, but don't stress yourself out over this. She's healthy, and that's all that matters" Alana said, and watched as he still had a hopeless look on his face.

"I know" Simba said, wishing he could know more about this whole topic but it didn't concern him and he just didn't want to be rude.

"Simba, Please, If you have questions, ask them" Alana said, being able to tell that he was curious and still wanted to know more.

"I know..." Simba said, trying to build the confidence to be able to just ask personal questions. "What happens if she doesn't get to suckle?" Simba asked, wondering if Alana suddenly stopped producing milk if it would be severe or not.

"She tired, weak, sick, that sorta stuff" Alana said, and watched as Simba sighed a little, with that same hopeless look at before. "Simba" Alana said, walking over to him and nuzzling into him. "I'm serious. Please don't worry about it. I'm beyond grateful for your concern but this isn't the end of the world. Don't stress yourself out" Alana said, licking the side of his face and felt him lean into her a little, and continued to give him some comforting gestures.

"Alright" Simba said, and watched as Alana smiled. "But can you do me a favor?" Simba asked, and watched as she nodded her head. "Mind letting me know if she gets better or worse?" Simba asked, and felt her lick the side of his face

"Of course" Alana said with a smile. Alana had no idea how someone could be as selfless as Simba, and was grateful to whatever king that guided him into her life.

"Thanks" Simba said, feeling as she nuzzled into him and licked the top of his head as Sarafina always did. "I'm going to make sure Tama is playing nice" Simba said, not wanting Mapenzi to upset Tama and then be further scared by her.

"I'm going to find your aunts and go scouting with them. We'll be in the northern territory today. You're welcome to join us if you finish early" Alana said, and watched as he smiled at her.

"I'll keep that in mind" Simba said and watched as she smiled in returned. Simba turned around and began to make his way back to Pride Rock, wondering how in only a few short days he had come to know a person like Alana and develope the relationship he had with her.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba walked up the hill that led to Pride Rock, and upon entering the den, Simba saw Nala, Tama, Kula, Ariya, and Mapenzi inside. Nala and Ariya were sleeping in their own private corner of the den away from the others, and Tama, Kula, and Mapenzi were in their normal spot looking to be playing some game.

Simba walked over to see that Kula seemed to be engaged in whatever Mapenzi was doing, which involved trying to keep a rock away from Kula by moving it with her paws, and Tama was simply watching them with a stoic look.

"Hey" Simba said as he walked over to the three of them, wondering what game they were playing and if Mapenzi was having any luck with making new friends.

"Hey" Tama said, glad that Simba was back, and even more so when he laid down next to her and gave her a small nuzzle.

"What game are you playing" Simba said, watching as Mapenzi put her paws over the rock as Kula attempted to do the same.

"Keep away" Kula said, smiling a little at how competitive Mapenzi was being. "I try to get the rock, while Mapenzi tries and keeps it away from me" Kula said, attempting to grab the rock, but Mapenzi swiped it to the side and Kula's paw hit the ground.

Simba could tell that Kula wasn't trying her best and could easily win if she tried, but didn't want to spoil Mapenzi's fun. Simba continued to watch Kula and Mapenzi play keep away when he felt Tama rest her head into his neck and looked over to see that she was looking up at him, and gave her a slight smile.

"Hey" Simba said in a quiet voice and felt her gently nuzzle into him. "You ok?" Simba asked, wondering if she was asking for some comfort, or just wanted to snuggle. Simba felt her nod and smiled a little at her gesture.

Simba watched out of the corner of his eye as Mapenzi looked over, and was probably surprised to see Tama snuggling since it was enough to distract her to where Kula finally landed her paw on the rock, drawing Mapenzi back to the game to see that she had lost.

Simba watched as Kula chuckled a little, and Mapenzi playfull swatted her paw at her head in return, before making her way over to him. Simba watched as she curiously approached him in a slightly lowered position, before suddenly jumping on top of him, and accidentally knocking into Tama as well, breaking the two of them apart.

Simba felt Mapenzi follow up by jumping back on him, laying on top of him, and playfully started chewing on his ear while releasing a slight growl. Simba let her have her fun, and looked over to see that Tama had a not so thrilled look on her face from where she interrupted the snuggle.

Simba slowly stood back up and felt her continue to try and wrestle with him, but wanted to have a small talk with Tama first, and gently pushed Mapenzi off of him, and saw her smiling upon doing this.

"You're getting strong" Simba said, and watched as she laughed a bit, before turning around and doing the same to Kula, and Simba watched them for a moment. "Hey" Simba said, gently tapping Tama, and motioned for her to follow him, and watched as she stood up.

Simba led Tama out of Pride Rock and up to the very top, which seemed to be the newest, and closest place to go to when they needed a private moment. Simba turned around and watched as Tama continued to walk towards him, and knew exactly what she was going to do.

Simba felt Tama collide into him, and upon doing this, Simba gently hugged her. Simba looked down at her to see she had a playful smile on her face unlike before and watched as she leaned up and kissed him.

"I wanted to talk to you about Mapenzi" Simba said and felt Tama pushed him over and pin him under her, before laying down on top of him and placing another kiss on his muzzle.

"Go ahead" Tama said as she relaxed, and snuggled into his fur. Simba was a little surprised that she was rather stoic a few moments ago, but as soon as they were alone, she got all playful and romantic.

"She's rather shy, and I was wondering if you could be extra nice for her so she can trust you easier" Simba said, and watched as Tama's romantic mood seemed to be killed upon this.

"What do you mean?" Tama asked, wondering why Mapenzi didn't trust her.

"You know... She's new around here and hasn't gotten to know you yet, and I don't want her to get the wrong idea about you" Simba said, knowing that Tama could be a bit short-tempered at times and Mapenzi's first impressions weren't the best so far, and he wanted to try and fix it before it got any worse.

"So you're basically saying don't act like a bitch" Tama said, knowing she acted like one at times, and Simba was afraid she was going to cause Mapenzi to be afraid of her.

"No, be yourself, Just know that Mapenzi is a bit shy around new people and you might have to soften up a bit for her for the next couple of days. I'm not trying to say that you act like a... well you know" Simba said and watched Tama release a heavy sigh.

"Alright" Tama said, watching as Simba smiled, which made her smile a little as well.

"Thanks" Simba said, glad that Tama would be willing to soften up since that was something she hated to have to do around just about anyone but him. Simba began to turn around to go and find his aunts as they were going to be scouting any time now and was curious to see what they would be scouting, when he felt Tama grab hold on his paw and pull it towards her.

"What time are you going to be back?" Tama asked, wanting to know if he was going to be gone for only a short while or for most of the day.

"No idea" Simba said, and watched as Tama had a slight look of disappointment on her face, and knew he had to cheer her up. "But I'll be back before you go to bed, and when I am, we'll have the rest of the night to do whatever we want" Simba said, licking her ear with a smile, and felt her release a slight purr as she pulled away.

"I'll be looking forward to it" Tama said as she gave him a quick playful kiss, before playfull pushing him back so he could go out and do whatever he had planned to do.

Simba smiled a bit when she did this, before turning around and making his way down to go find his aunts.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba began walking in the general direction that he had seen Alana walking in as he left his hideout, hoping that she was taking a direct route, or else he was going to have trouble finding them. Simba was able to make out her paw prints in the dirt and began to follow them.

Simba continued to follow them, until he found himself in a large clearing, and could make out four lionesses in the distance. As Simba began to approach them, he noticed that they saw him, and began to make their way towards him with some haste, making him wonder what the hurry was.

"Everything ok?" Sarafina asked, surprised that Simba had sought her out since it was the middle of the day, and he always waited until either morning or night if it wasn't too important.

"Yea, I just wanted to see what scouting was all about" Simba said, and watched as they seemed to wear slightly happy looks.

"You're welcome to tag along if you wish" Sarafina said with a smile, glad to see that Simba was taking interest in the kingdom, even the boring parts.

Simba began to follow his aunts as they all made their way back towards where they had been before, and kept going. Simba wondered where and what they would be scouting, as Alana wasn't able to tell him due to Mapenzi stopping by.

Simba observed that they were taking note of herd positions, the number of animals in each multitude, and the direction they were heading in. Simba then realized that they were scouting over the hunting grounds and were probably making plans for upcoming hunts.

The group continued on the planned path, keeping a distance from the herds so they didn't disturb or scare them away, continuing to take notes of what was going on with each of them. Simba was continuing to watch his aunts continuing to take in information when he noticed the grass to his left was being separated by something moving inside of it and wondered what it was.

Out of nowhere, a large buffalo, obviously in a panic of some sort, emerged from the grass and began charging at the group. Simba noticed that Matimba was directly in its path and the buffalo was obviously making no attempt to slow down or change its path, and Simba knew that something that big and going that fast would kill her upon impact.

Acting on instinct, Simba charged at Matimba with only one purpose. Upon reaching her, Simba collided with her, slamming her out of the way, but not being so lucky himself. Simba felt the Buffalo slam into the side of him, sending him flying across the ground and into the side of a small tree, breaking several ribs in the process, and kept on running away, making him wondering who, or what it was running from.

Simba slowly got up, groaning as his ribs pulsated in pain from the impact, looking up to see that Matimba was fine and his aunts were sprinting over to him, making him realize how far he had been thrown from the impact.

Simba watched as his aunts all frantically ran up to him with horrified looks on their face, and immediately began to coddle and inspect him upon reaching him. Knowing that nothing would stop them from doing this, Simba didn't even try and protest against them and knew it was best to just let them make sure he was ok.

"Simba what were you thinking?!" Matimba asked, wondering what had caused him to perform such a suicidal rescue mission. Matimba wasn't even sure what was going through his head when he decided to take the impact for her. He was the last of his bloodline, and if something were to happen to him, the whole pride could come apart since he didn't have an heir.

"I don't know" Simba said, standing up and grunting a little when he sighed, forgetting how broken ribs sucked.

"Hold still" Sarafina said, not wanting him to make anything worse by moving since his ribs were located near his lungs and his father had died under those circumstances.

"I'm fine... or I'll be fine. I broke a few ribs. I'll go see Rafiki but... calm down. It'll be ok" Simba asked, wondering how he was the one who nearly died and was now having to tell everybody else to calm down and stop worrying.

"We don't know that yet" Khanya said, wanting to make sure that Simba had only broken a few ribs and hadn't sustained a much more serious wound.

"Come on, we should get you to Rafiki" Alana said, knowing that Rafiki would be able to help him in some way.

Without arguing, Simba began to make his way to Rafiki's with the 'help' of his aunts. Simba noticed as he walked that they were all creating a protective circle around him. Sarafina was on his right, Alana on his left, Matimba in front, and Khanya behind him. Simba wondered why they were all so worried about him when all he had was a couple of broken ribs. If he had sustained a much more serious would such as a punctured lung, severed vessel, or something else that would cause him trouble, he would have known by now since he would most likely be dead or very close.

Upon entering Rafiki's tree, Simba saw him meditating in the same spot as always and opened his eyes once he entered.

"Yes?" Rafiki asked, wondering what Simba and his aunts needed.

"Simba's hurt. He's broken several ribs" Sarafina said as she approached the old mandril, and watched as he had a slightly annoyed look on his face.

"Again!?" Rafiki said as he jumped down and walked up to Simba. Upon saying this, Simba got four uncomfortable looks from his aunts and knew he was in for it now.

"What does he mean, Again?" Sarafina asked, wondering if it meant what she thought it meant because if it did, she was going to have to have a serious talk with him.

"Dis is da second time dis month!" Rafiki said, taking one look and being able to tell that his ribs were indeed broken. Upon saying this, Rafiki was able to tell that Sarafina was livid, and Simba hadn't told her about the accident that happened three weeks ago.

"What... What do you mean the... What does he mean the second time this month?!" Sarafina asked in an angered tone, unable to turn her thoughts into words, wondering if Simba had hurt himself and decided to hide it from her. Whether he thought it was important or not, he was the last of his bloodline and nothing could happen to him for the security of the pride.

"I cracked a rib a couple of weeks ago, but it was nothing" Simba said, and watched as she sighed in anger.

"So you thought it would be a good idea to lie?" Sarafina asked, wondering what was going through Simba's head at that time and if he had been hiding other injuries from her that she ought to know about.

"I didn't think it was worth telling anyone since it was just one cracked rib" Simba said, still believing that the decision he had made was the right one as he didn't want to cause her, and especially his sister's unnecessary stress.

"And look where that has gotten us! Would it have been worth it if you knew this would happen?" Sarafina asked, wondering why he didn't think of simply telling her.

"No" Simba said and heard her huff in annoyance.

"I'll be waiting for you outside" Sarafina said, wanting him to know that she wasn't done with him just yet and that she wanted to have a serious talk. Sarafina watched as he nodded his head, before turning around and walking out of the tree, with the other adults in tow, and waited at the base of the tree for Simba while the other's went back to Pride Rock, knowing that she would want to speak to him alone since she was the closest thing he had to a mother.

After waiting for a while in frustration, and only being able to focus on the anger she was currently feeling, Sarafina heard Simba make his way down the turn, and turned around to meet his gaze. Sarafina observed that Rafiki hadn't done anything to Simba while he was up there, reassuring her that it wasn't bad and only a few minor breaks.

"Well?" Sarafina said as he walked up to her.

"Seven cracked ribs, and a sprained wrist. No breaks" Simba said, glad that he hadn't broken anything since ribs were the worst and always felt like they took forever to heal.

"I was more talking about the reason for you lying" Sarafina said, wanting to get that out of the way first and then she would ask him about his injuries, but he had missed her meaning.

"Oh... Uh... I don't know" Simba said, knowing that his excuse was going to make him look terrible and cause her to get even more frustrated.

"Have you lied about anything else? Huh?" Sarafina asked, and watched as he slouched over a little and shook his head. "No fights, other minor breaks, torn muscles, anything?" Sarafina said, knowing that someone like Simba got in enough trouble that any of that could have easily happened to him in the past month.

"No" Simba said, feeling guilty that he had lied to her.

"I... I've never been more disappointed in my life Simba. I trusted you to be able to do the right things Simba" Sarafina said and could tell her words had a greater impact on him by the way he had the gut-wrenching guilt-ridden look on his face.

"You're dismissed, Sarafina" Simba said in a quiet tone, shocking her.

Sarafina had never heard Simba call her by her real name. He always called her auntie. And what shocked her more was that he had ordered her home. Sarafina never thought about it, but Simba had total authority over her now, but she never thought that he would actually use it. He had been so submissive to her his entire life that the idea of him ordering her home seemed ridiculous.

"What?" Sarafina asked in a shocked voice, making sure that she held no anger or aggression in her voice so he didn't think that she was questioning his authority or refusing his order.

"I don't want to talk about this..." Simba said with a sigh, letting her know that he wasn't mad at her, but couldn't stomach the pain in his gut when she told him how disappointed he was in her.

"Simba" Sarafina said, walking up to him and gently resting a paw on his cheek, and watched as he looked up at her with a guilty look in his eyes, causing her to hate herself for saying what she had said. "If you wish for me to leave, then I will, but I can't leave letting you think I hate you. Punish me if you want, but until you know my true feelings, I refuse" Sarafina said, knowing that what she had said was worth exile at best, and death at worst, but he was a son to her, and she would be willing to die for him just as she would for Nala or Mheetu.

"I'm sorry" Simba said, regretting the fact that he had tried to order Sarafina to leave.

Sarafina was surprised that he apologized for doing something that all kings did. Sarafina knew that he respected her, but didn't think that his respect for her would cause conflict for him whenever he had to give her an order.

"I know... I lied and that hurt you... and I'm sorry... but I didn't mean to hurt you... I wanted to prevent that from happening by hiding my injury... but I hurt you nonetheless" Simba said, hating how his plans to prevent pain always seemed to cause it no matter how hard he tried.

"It's ok" Sarafina said, nuzzling into him and wondering how this conversation went nothing like how she planned it to. Sarafina felt Simba break the nuzzle and began walking away, and quickly caught back up to him, wondering where he was going.

"Where are you going?" Sarafina asked, knowing that he was capable of taking care of himself, but he also had a huge weakness now due to his ribs and she wasn't sure if she wanted him to be alone. Sarafina watched as he continued walking for a few seconds, before suddenly throwing up and losing his foot, causing him to drop to his knees, making her wonder what was wrong.

"Simba!" Sarafina said, running up beside him in time to watch his vomit a second time, and wondered if it was at all related to the injury he had sustained.

"I'm fine" Simba said, wiping off his mouth and slowly getting back up, but felt Sarafina still hold on to him out of fear of him collapsing again.

"What happened?" Sarafina asked, wondering what had caused him to throw up all of a sudden.

"Just felt the urge to vomit" Simba said, looking over to see that she had a concerned look on her face, most likely afraid that the impact had caused internal damage to either his stomach or gut and gave her a small smile to let her know he felt better.

"Are you... feeling sick or... something maybe worse?" Sarafina said, knowing that if Simba had internal damage of that sort it would cause him a long and painful death and that she truly feared.

"Well... That buffalo did look a lot bigger upfront" Simba said with a chuckle, letting her know that his body was starting to come down off of an adrenaline rush, and that combined with the guilt probably just caused that reaction.

Sarafina looked him over once more for a couple of seconds, surprised that a few cracked ribs and a sprained wrist were all he had. There had been times where buffalo hunts could go terribly wrong, and someone could end up getting trampled or gored, but luckily that hadn't happened to anyone in their pride, and luckily that it didn't happen to Simba.

"What?" Simba asked, wondering what Sarafina was looking for since she already knew the extent of his injuries.

"I'm just... I don't even know..." Sarafina said, wondering how he was even able to survive that. "I'm just amazed you're alive" Sarafina said, and saw the look on Simba's face on him preparing for her to tell him how he could have died and he had to be more careful and all that, but she was already past all of that.

"It's a miracle you were flung out to the side of the buffalo and not crushed under it, and when you were flung out its also a miracle you weren't gored" Sarafina said, knowing many things could have gone wrong that didn't, and that to her was almost unbelievable.

"Yea..." Simba said, remembering back for the few huntings lessons he received that you had to be very careful when hunting horned animals as one wrong move could be fatal.

"So... uh..." Simba started, already knowing the answer to the question he was going to ask but wanted to make sure she knew he wasn't going to even think about it anyway. "I guess I'm going to be forced to stay within Pride Rock whether I want to or not and if I order anyone to let me leave they'll relieve me of command for the time being?" Simba asked, knowing the answer would be yes and knew everyone, especially the girls would be very clingy upon his arrival.

Sarafina smiled upon him saying this, knowing that by his sense of humor that he wasn't just saying he was ok for her sake, and found it a little funny that he was already accepting his soon to be true fate.

"If by relieved you mean having three lionesses piled on top of you, then yes" Sarafina said, knowing that as soon as the girls find out about what happened, they would practically imprison him for the next two days.

"Yay..." Simba said, knowing that he was going to be in for a long day since it was only the middle of the day. Upon hearing Sarafina chuckle a little at his comment, Simba heard something approaching them at a very fast speed and wondered what it could be this time, and watched as Sarafina noticed it as well, and got into a defensive stance herself, readying herself for anything that would attempt to attack the already injured king.

Simba watched as a frantic Tama broke through the grass line and started sprinting towards him, blowing past Sarafina with great speed, and braced for impact. Simba felt Tama collide into his chest and began to hug him for all she was worth and felt immense pain shoot through his entire ribcage upon this, but only let out a small silent wheeze. Simba watched as Sarafina was walking up to them to pry her off so she wouldn't hurt him, and Simba looked at her with a look that told her not to, wanting Tama to be able to enjoy her moment. Simba felt Tama begin to break the hug, and looked down at her to see that she had a distressed look in her eyes.

"Hey-" Simba just managed to finish saying, when he was abruptly punched in the face by Tama. Simba took a few steps back in surprise, not pain, and was able to see Sarafina grab Tama and pin her on the ground despite her best efforts to resist. Tama may have been a good fighter for her age, but she had a lot to learn and was still no match in a real fight against Sarafina.

"Auntie it's ok" Simba said, not wanting the two of them to get into a real right were claws and teeth started to be used and watched as Sarafina gave him an unsure look, before roughly letting Tama go. Sarafina heard Tama snarl as she stood up, challenging her to a fight again, wanting to show her how much harder it would be to beat her when she was prepared, but remained still and calm, knowing Tama was worked up right now and wasn't thinking straight.

"Tama calm down" Simba said, walking up to her knowing that he was going to get hit again, but he didn't want the two of them fighting as he didn't need anyone acting up right now.

Tama turned around to see Simba walking up to her, and went to push him back this time, and when she tried, she felt him grab both of her paws and gently twist them outwards, locking both of her arms simultaneously and immobilizing her.

"Let go" Tama said, trying to pull away but found it to be painful. Tama tried an assortment of different things to break free, but the more she moved the more it hurt, and after a few seconds of struggle, Tama gave up and looked down with a humiliated look on her face. Not only did he embarrass her by making her realize how weak she was, but he also had to do it in front of someone else.

"Tama" Simba said, and watched as she looked up at him. "I know you're mad that this happened, and that I just throw myself in front of someone like that as if me dying didn't matter, but I'm ok. Please, calm down" Simba said, and observed her breathing to get much calmer and body to get looser.

"I'm going to let go now, ok? I'm trusting you" Simba said, knowing that he was using a dirty trick to get her to remain calm by wording it so that if she did freak out again, she would be breaking his trust in her.

Simba began to slowly let go, and watched as she slowly began to relax as well, before finally letting go completely and watching as she rubbed her wrists a little, before sitting there looking down at her paws.

"You alright?" Simba asked, wanting to make sure he didn't hurt her in the process to detain her, and watched as she nodded her head, making him realize that she was just embarrassed that Sarafina had to witness her episode.

"You ok?" Tama asked, leaning forward and nuzzling into his mane.

"Fine" Simba said, glad to see she was calming down and starting to open up a little.

"I'm sorry I punch you in the face" Tama said, running her paw gently over the area of his jaw that she hit, and watched as he smiled a bit, making her wonder how he wasn't mad at her even after that.

"It's alright. I'm sorry I got hurt" Simba said with a chuckle, and watched as she chuckled in return.

"I just came out here to see for myself if you were ok... and well... to get revenge for making me worry" Tama said with a slight look of guilt and felt Simba lick the top of her head which made her recoil a bit as Sarafina was still present and she didn't want to display too much affection in front of her.

"I guessed it was that" Simba said, finding her reaction to his lick to be a little amusing.

"Nala and Kula will want to see you as well" Tama said, turning around and walking away, knowing that Sarafina was probably going to talk to her about what had happened here and wanted to have to prepare for that uncomfortable conversation, leaving the two of them behind.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank god you're father isn't around" Sarafina said once Tama was far enough away and watched as Simba gave her a confused look. "What she just did would have certainly gotten her banished" Sarafina said, and watched as Simba frowned a bit.

"She was just worried. Can't blame her for that" Simba said, and heard Sarafina huff a little, before watching as she walked over to him and licked the top of his head similar to how he had down, and noticed that she had to lift her front two paws off the ground this time, making him realize that he was starting to get noticeably taller than her.

"She just needs to learn self-control and respect, as well as her place in this pride" Sarafina said, knowing that her entire life she had been playing a dangerous game and it was a miracle that she hadn't been severally punished yet.

"I'll deal with her later" Simba said, knowing she was just emotional right now and things would be better once she calmed down.

"Well I was going to talk to her tonight, but if you want to it's probably better if someone closer to her tries to help" Sarafina said, and watched as Simba nodded. Simba then remembered about Nala saying she was going to talk to Sarafina about his mother's death in the morning, but wasn't sure if she had, and if she hadn't, now wasn't a bad time.

"Did uh... Nala talk to you this morning?" Simba asked, and watched as she had a curious look on her face.

"No, why?" Sarafina asked, wondering if something was bothering Nala and he wanted her to talk to her about it.

"Well uh... So as king I have to have an heir..." Simba started and saw Sarafina straighten up a bit and start to really focus now, making him realize that she was probably thinking he was leaning towards doing it soon. "And Nala is both my queen and mate so it would be undoubtedly with her, and I was wondering well... uh... How likely would it be for what happened to my mother to happen to her?" Simba asked, and watched as Sarafina had an almost relieved look on her face.

"Very unlikely" Sarafina said, and watched as he had a relieved expression aswell. "I've never heard of anyone else who suffered the fate your mother did. It's extremely rare, and unfortunately, your mother succumbed to it, but Nala is healthy, and strong, she'll be ok" Sarafina said, not wanting the idea of Nala dying in childbirth to be stuck in Simba's head.

"Oh... good" Simba said, having a distant look in his eyes as he was in deep thought, which Sarafina picked up on.

"Were you thinking of doing it anytime soon?" Sarafina asked, knowing that the sooner the better.

"No" Simba said quickly and noticed the odd and surprising look he got from Sarafina who was wondering why his response was so sudden and sharp.

"So have you two even mated yet?" Sarafina asked, knowing that's what newly crowned couples often did first.

"No" Simba said again, wishing he had been able to avoid this part of the conversation.

"The Princess?" Sarafina asked, knowing that she was usually the next one he would traditionally mate with.

"No" Simba asked, now wishing he was anywhere but here.

"Anyone?" Sarafina asked, almost expecting that he would have wanted to mate with someone now as all kings did.

"No" Simba said, wondering why she was so interested in whether he was sexually active or not.

"Do you want to mate with anyone?" Sarafina asked, wondering if he had started to experience some new feelings or if he wasn't that mature yet.

"No" Simba said, knowing that he had more important things to worry about now such as the threats to his pride.

"Simba..." Sarafina said, wanting him to get the idea of him being the last of his bloodline, but so far she had been unable to since he wouldn't listen to her. "You're the last of you're bloodline. There's no one else. If something were to happen to you... the Pride wouldn't be able to recover without an heir" Sarafina said, and saw him look up at her. "I need you to be careful Simba" Sarafina said, wishing that things like this just didn't happen, and if there wasn't a way to prevent them, then she wished he could at least have an heir already.

"Well, I wasn't going to just let her die" Simba said, wondering how Sarafina was asking him to let other people die when he had the chance to save them.

"I'm not saying that. I think what you did today was heroic and brave, but I just need you to know that you can't always take risk that could end in your death because then we would all suffer the consiquences" Sarafina said, knowing that it would be hard for him due to his personality to accept this, but he would have to come to terms to this if the pride was to remain secure.

"So my choices are narrowed down to one person dies, or potentially everyone" Simba said, remembering how his trial was based on the same situation, only then sacrificing himself was the right answer.

"That's one way to look at it" Sarafina said, knowing there weren't many other ways to look at it in this particular situation.

"Great" Simba said, wondering when if ever, he would be able to get a break in life where he would be able to what he wanted when he wanted, exactly how he wanted because up to now, that hadn't happened yet. "Well, I'm going home. I gotta figure out how I'm going to explain 'this' to Nala" Simba said, gesturing to his ribs, before standing up and beginning to walk away.

Sarafina sat still for a moment, watching his retreating figure with a pitiful look on her face, wishing his life could just be simpler and easier for him, but as of now, unfortunately, there wasn't a way. Sarafina got up and began to follow him back, not wanting him to suffer any more injuries on the walk back, wondering how the girls were going to take this.

 **Done. It only took me a month. Well, at least it isn't February lol. Also, I know, I didn't get to the part where the girls get all cuddly with him at Pride Rock. I'm saving that for later. Anyway, time to beg. If you liked this chapter or got any suggestions, feel free to let me know so long as it's reasonable. Also, the story is up to about 30k views which is nice and the story is still growing even though the first 6k are in the first chapter lol. Also, I know there are a bunch of little errors in my writing that have been there for a while. I'm going to fix them in the next 1 to 10 years, so just let me know if you see any and I'll take some time one day to fix them. Anyway, not too much left to say this, and if you're wondering, the next Chapter will be posted sometime in February, so I hope y'all stick around for that. Thought I'd change it up a bit, so, Mr_Toast signing off!**


	26. Confrontation

**Simba's Pain Chapter 26**

 **By Mr_Toast**

 **Discord: Mr_Toast#1679**

 **Story Discord: bit .ly /SimbasPain**

 **Welcome Back y'all. So now that it's no longer the first month of the year, writing will be easier since work won't be as busy so hopefully, I can post chapters a little faster, but with me, no promises lol. As always, there's not much to say here, so with that, Enjoy!**

Simba was currently walking back to Pride Rock and could hear that Sarafina was speed walking to catch back up, and could already tell the rest of today and probably most of tomorrow were going to be just miserable for him. It was the pain from his cracked ribs that he was worried about, but the fact that every time something like this happened everyone had this irrational fear that somehow he was going to die unless they all kept him trapped in Pride Rock until he managed to find a way to escape.

"You ok?" Sarafina said upon catching up to him, knowing she had already asked that question a few times by now, but the current look in his eyes didn't make it seem that way.

"Yea... sorta" Simba said, looking over to see that Sarafina was giving him a look that told him he needed to be more specific. "Well... It's just that the worst part about getting hurt isn't the pain. It's everyone overreacting and taking control of your life" Simba said, knowing that it's what's going to happen as soon as he enters Pride Rock.

"The girls" Sarafina said, knowing who he was talking about, and knew how they could take a mental toll on Simba after long periods of time.

"Who else" Simba said, wondering why the girls were the only ones who ever got super clingy and emotional when he got hurt, and never the adults.

"Maybe you just need to talk to them and let them know you hate it when they do stuff like that" Sarafina said, wondering why Simba didn't even try to take a very simple and easy approach to it.

"Only to have them tell me how I should be emotionally supporting them when things like this happen and how If I didn't get hurt then they wouldn't have to trap me?" Simba said, knowing exactly how that conversation would go.

Sarafina sighed a bit when he said this, party knowing that he was right and that there wasn't much anyone could say to them to get them to calm down any. "Well, you can always stay with me and the adults" Sarafina said, wondering if that would be able to take some stress of him for at least tonight.

"They'd still be upset if I did that and make it out to seem like I didn't care about there feelings" Simba said, having thought a lot in the past of what he could do when things like this happened, and so far he had never come up with anything that would work.

"Well, then you need to do something about it. Just tell them you want to be left alone, and that's it's nothing personal and you understand they're upset, but make them understand you just want some space. If you ever want them to stop you can't let them walk all over you, especially if you have the power to tell them otherwise" Sarafina said, wondering why it was so hard for Simba to realize that he was king and what he said had a lot of power.

"If I use my power over them they're either going to ignore me or get all emotional and pretend that my love for them is fake or something" Simba said, knowing how they would react to something like that.

"Simba. They don't understand that just because they might love you or want to protect you that it gives them to right to disobey their king. You need to start enforcing your position as a king, as well as start acting like one. Just because you give someone an order doesn't mean that you're killing a relationship or friendship, it simply means that you need them to do something for you because it's important" Sarafina said, wishing that he wasn't so submissive and would start acting like a normal male for once.

"Fine, I'll do it your way, but I still don't think it's going to end well" Simba said, knowing that they were going to protest and that it wasn't going to be pretty.

"Maybe not, but next time might be better, or the time after that. You have to start somewhere, or else nothing will ever change" Sarafina said, knowing that the girls weren't going to change on their own and needed to have a reality check of their own.

"I know" Simba said, hoping that it wasn't going to lead to any unnecessary fights, breakdowns, or overreactions. Simba and Sarafina continued to make their way back to Pride Rock in silence, and Simba was glad that he could finally have a little peace and quiet before having to enter Pride Rock.

Upon reaching Pride Rock, Simba stopped at the hill that led to the top, hesitating to enter for a moment, before feeling Sarafina gently nudge him to get him to start moving again, and Simba slowly began to walk up to the top.

Simba entered Pride Rock at a slow pace, and as soon as he rounded the corner into the cave he saw Nala, Tama, and Kula walking towards him at a rapid pace, and sighed a little.

"Are you ok?" Nala asked, kissing the side of his muzzle and inspecting his chest to see for herself how bad the damage was. Upon seeing that it wasn't all that bad, she felt better, but still wondered how he was so reckless as to do something this stupid.

"Fine" Simba said, gently walking through the semi-circle they had created, not stopping as they had intended him to do. Simba felt them quickly walk up beside him and attempt to steer him towards their usual spot, but Simba continued to walk towards the back of Pride Rock and could tell they were confused.

"Where are you going?" Nala asked, wondering why he wasn't going there normal spot.

"I was going to... sleep with Ariya" Simba said, looking around for a split second and seeing her first. Simba saw that she looked to be a little suspicious, and knew that she was going to start questioning him.

"Why...?" Nala asked, never having seen him sleep with her before and wondered why all of a sudden he seemed interested in doing so. To her, it seemed like he was using her as a means of escaping for a while.

"You know... she's cuddly..." Simba said, wondering why he used that as an excuse as he knew exactly what was coming next.

"We can be cuddly" Kula said, cuddling into him, and felt that he was a bit stiffer than he normally was.

"Ok fine. I hate it when you guys keep me trapped in here. I'm not going to die because you're not attached to me or something stupid like that, and yes, I'm sure you think I'm trying to avoid you, because I am" Simba said, deciding to be blunt about it and try Sarafinas method, changing his direction to their normal spot and laying down, watching from the corner of his eye that they were all standing there with shocked looks on there face, probably wondering what had just happened.

After laying down for a few moments, Simba felt someone gently kiss his cheek, and opened his eyes so see Nala standing over him with a guilty look in her eyes, making him regret being harsh towards her.

"I love y-" "Nala" Simba said at the same time as her, and watching as a few tears escaped her eyes upon doing this, and quickly stood up and nuzzled into her. "Nala I'm not mad at you" Simba said, realizing that he had cut her off and she probably thought he was mad at her and didn't want to do anything about love right now. "I'm just a little tired and cranky that's all" Simba said, feeling as she threw herself at him upon feeling him nuzzle her.

"I love you" Nala said, nuzzling into him so she knew he could hear it, and felt him return the nuzzle.

"I love you too" Simba asked, wondering why she was acting all emotional all of a sudden

"I… we hate it when you get hurt" Nala said, speaking for Tama and Kula as well. "And our first instinct is to protect you even though you don't need it" Nala said, doing a poor job of explaining why they were clingy when he got hurt.

"I know, but If I ever need you guys for something like this I'd tell you. Trust me" Simba said, wondering if they'd ever come to terms with the fact that he didn't need to be coddled after ever bruise or cut, and that he would be fine.

"I know… I just can't help it" Nala said, unsure of why she couldn't just accept that he was fine. No matter how hard she tried, it always ended up with her clinging on to him.

"I can tell" Simba said with a slight chuckle, and watched as she smiled a little. Simba leaned forward and nuzzled into her, and Nala returned his nuzzle, before leaning back a bit and drawing him into a kiss. Simba returned her kiss, and felt her abruptly end it and pull back with a slightly disgusted look on her face, making him wonder what was wrong.

"Your breath is awful" Nala said, wondering what he had eaten or drunk that made his breath smell and taste terrible.

"Oh, right, I threw up a bit a little while ago" Simba said, and watched as Nala sighed a little. He could tell that she was in an internal conflict of wanting to protect him and make sure he was ok, but also knew that since he didn't bring it up to her he was also fine.

"That's… nice. You should go drink some water" Nala said, deciding to leave it at that, trusting that he was fine as he hadn't brought it up yet.

"Yea" Simba said, giving her a small nuzzle before turning around and beginning to walk towards the waterhole. Simba saw that Tama and Kula looked to be both surprised and confused that Nala was letting him leave, and were probably wondering why she was letting him go when he was hurt.

Simba exited Pride Rock and walked down to the waterhole, shocked and glad that Nala was trying to improve how she acted in times like this, and knew that there was probably still going to be times in the future where she would trap him, but was happy that he was free this time.

Simba walked down to the water's edge and began drinking and spitting water out, washing the inside of his mouth out and heard that someone was approaching him. Simba guessed that it was either Tama, Kula, or Sarafina wanting to know where he was going and how he was doing and was surprised to see Matimba waiting patiently a few feet away from him when he turned around.

"Uh… hey" Simba asked, wondering why Matimba was standing behind him. Simba stared at her for a few seconds, before she suddenly walked up to him and gently hugged him, being aware of his injuries. Simba was a little surprised by her action, confused why she was hugging him, and felt her pull away and nuzzle into him.

"Thank you" Matimba said in a soft voice, nuzzling into his mane and being amazed at how soft it was. Matimba could tell that he was a little nervous right now, and knew that he didn't know her that well but would warm up to her more and more as time went on.

"Uhh… for what?" Simba asked, wondering why she was thankful.

"For saving me" Matimba said, breaking the nuzzle and looking up at him.

"Oh… right. How's your shoulder?" Simba asked, knowing that he had hit her shoulder pretty hard when he slammed her out of the way, and wanted to make sure that he didn't hurt her at all.

"Fine. How's yours?" Matimba asked, wondering how he was doing.

"Broken" Simba said with a chuckle, knowing that it wasn't broken, but his entire left arm hurt.

"I can't thank you enough. At the angle, I was at and it's speed… the impact alone would have probably killed me. It's a miracle you survived, and even more so your walking around not even an hour later" Marimba said, wondering how he even survived.

"Yea…" Simba said, knowing how lucky he was as Sarafina had told him plenty of times he shouldn't be alive right now.

"Is there anything I can do to repay you? Anything you need?" Matimba asked, willing to do anything he asked of her since he was the only reason she was still alive to see her daughter.

"No" Simba said, wondering why people were supposed to pay him for doing the right things.

"Are you sure? There's nothing at all that you want or need help with?" Matimba asked, surprised that he had turned down her offer.

"Nope" Simba said, wanting her to just forget about it since it wasn't all that important.

"Well, I'm in your debt, and I will be until you need me" Matimba said, knowing that not repaying him at all wasn't the right thing to do.

"Matimba it's fi-" "My apologies your majesty, but I'm in your debt" Matimba said, and watched as he wore a slightly stoic face.

"Simba. My name is Simba" Simba said, wanting her to call him that instead of by royal titles.

"My apologies" Matimba said, not knowing he preferred his real name over his title.

"It's fine" Simba said, wondering why people couldn't treat him like a normal person like before. He was the same person then, and the only difference now was that he was king, and he wasn't sure why everything had to change because of that.

"Well… I guess I've overstayed my visit. I'll leave you to your thoughts" Matimba said, turning around and walking back to Pride Rock.

Simba continued to sit at the water's edge for a few minutes, before standing up and beginning to walk into the Pride Lands as he always did. Simba walked down a trail that he often used to get to the border of the Pride Lands, and decided to circle the Pride Lands again since he didn't have anything better to do and the threat that lurked outside could strike at any moment.

After walking the border for what seemed like an hour, Simba saw something that wasn't there after his patrol in the morning. A trail of paw prints that belong to a lion were imprinted into the ground from where they had entered from the Pride Lands, making him realize that someone was hiding within his territory and he had no idea if they were hostile or not.

Simba began to follow the paw prints, having little hope that he would find the person as he was currently walking on soft dirt that would leave imprints, but the ground density changed through the Pride Lands, meaning that any change of direction would leave them untraceable.

Simba noticed that they paw prints seemed to be fresh by what Sarafina had told him when teaching him how to track prey, and knew he couldn't be that far away. Simba watched as they suddenly veered to the right, and knew a small water hole wasn't too far away in the direction.

Simba cautiously followed them until he was at the edge of the tall grass, but couldn't see anyone in the clearing by the water. Simba carefully entered the clearing, and saw a lone lioness, similar in age to him, drinking water as if it were the first time she had seen it in days, with fur that was matted and dirty.

Simba could tell that she didn't know of his presence yet, and wondered how he was going to make his presence known passively. Simba knew that if he just walked up to her, he would most likely provoke a negative reaction as she was clearly a rogue and he was a male, and from what he could tell, that wouldn't end well.

As Simba began to think up way, he watched as she turned her head over, and froze when she saw him. Simba was still several yards away from her, but could still tell that she was uneasy by his presence, and wasn't sure what he should do next.

Simba slowly took one step forward, and watched as she quickly sprang back, and collapsed in the process of having an injured leg. Simba's first instinct was to see what was wrong with her leg and help her, but didn't want her to hurt herself further in an attempt to escape.

"You ok?" Simba said in a calm voice, staying where he was, and watched as she just continued to stare at him with a terrified look on her face. "It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help" Simba said, and watched as she remained stone still.

"I'm Simba, I'm the king of the Pride Lands. I don't mind if you stay here I just want to make sure you're going to be ok and won't cause any trouble" Simba said, not caring if she stayed here or not, so long as he knew who she was.

Simba watched as she continued to just lay there with a terrified look in her eyes, making him wonder what had happened to her to cause her to fear him so much.

"Got a name?" Simba asked, wondering if he could get anything out of her or is she was going to continue to remain silent. "Uh… well… I'm going to go now" Simba said, not wanting to stress her out and as far as he could tell she just wanted to get out of there. As soon as Simba turned around, he heard her rustle around and turned around to see her limp out into the tall grass and out of sight.

Simba had the usual thoughts in his head when in these kinds of situations. Who was she, where is she from, and why is she here. Simba had never seen her before, and wondered what a person her age was doing out in the savanna all by herself with an injured leg.

Simba wanted to follow her and figure out these questions, but at the same time he didn't want to scare her off, and knew that the Pride Lands was home to the only safe water source next to the Riverside Pride, but they were hours away, so she would be back.

With that, Simba began to walk back to Pride Rock to get some sleep, wondering how he was going to gain her trust and figure out who she was, maybe befriend her, and possibly get her to join his pride if she wanted.

(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)

The next day, Simba woke up and gave the girls all the nuzzles he had to in order to let him leave for his morning patrol, and set out to survey the Pride Lands. The thought of the lioness from yesterday was still on his mind, and he was hoping that during his patrol he would be able to spot her and possibly try and get to know her.

Simba started to make his way towards the southern border as he always did, and began to circle up towards the north, looking out for anything that caught his eye. It wasn't long before he spotted her at a small deserted water hole, hiding in the tall grass to set up an ambush against small animals, but was failing as she was hiding downwind, and anything would pick up her scent far before getting near her.

Simba decided that he was going to help her out by catching something for her, and hopefully, that would help her trust him more. After catching a small squirrel, Simba walked towards the waterhole to get a drink in the direction that her trap was set up, and could hear her quiet her breathing upon his approach.

Simba broke the grass line, leaving the squirrel out of sight, and began to drink from the waterhole, listening as she quieted her breathing and remained still, thinking that he didn't know she was there.

"When you set up an ambush, set it upwind so animals can't smell you until it's too late. Winds come from the northwest usually. Also, you might want to try a more popular waterhole. Nothing comes to this one" Simba said after finishing his drink, beginning to walk away and tossing the squirrel in her direction.

Upon walking away, Simba could hear as she silently slipped out of the grass and inspected the squirrel herself, before picking it up and silently slipping away. Once she was far enough away, Simba began to follow her to see where she was hiding, and followed her to a tree that had fallen over and dug up the ground with its roots, leaving a large hole that she could fit in.

Simba sat at a distance for a while, wanting to give her some time to eat before he approached her again. Simba knew that she was shy and scared, which made this whole process much harder, but was willing to wait and be able to help her.

After what felt like a while, Simba slowly started to approach the hole, making his presence obvious by stepping louder than he normally did and approached from an angle that would allow her to see him coming from a distance. Simba sat down when he was several yards away from the hole, and waited for a while to see if she would be willing to come out on her own.

"There's no reason to hide. I'm not going to do anything to you. I just want to help" Simba said after a few moments of sitting there in silence.

"Look. You know as well as I do that you won't survive on your own. You can't hunt because of your leg and are too scared to travel near Pride Rock since you don't want to be seen. If you want me to hunt for you forever and just drop it off here, never talking or anything, I can do that, but you won't get in trouble for being here. I'm the king, and as king, I'm allowing you to stay here. So can I at least talk to you or get your name?" Simba said in a calm and soothing voice, hoping he would be able to get her to come out.

Surprisingly, Simba watched as she slowly inched out, watching him carefully as if her life depended on it, not allowing herself to get too close even though if he wanted her dead there was nowhere she could run or hide in her current condition.

"Hey" Simba said once she was fully in sight, watching as she was cowering down and away from him, sitting down funnily to get weight off her back leg. He could also see how skinny she was, and could tell she wasn't eating enough as she should. Finally, her right back leg was dislocated at the paw, and it was no wonder why she was nursing it as it would have been extremely painful to walk on.

"Can I see your leg? I can fix it" Simba said, watching as she gave him a very untrustful look. Simba slowly began to approach her, watching as she leaned away when he did this, but continued inching towards her, remaining very calm and docile so he didn't scare her.

Upon reaching her, Simba was able to see her eyes up close, and was amazed by their beauty and complexity. Simba saw that she was looking up at him with a terrified look behind a pair of purple eyes, unlike anything he had ever seen. He knew that blue, orange, red, green, and brown were a thing, but he had never seen or heard of a lion having purple eyes.

"Wow… your eyes are beautiful" Simba said with a slight chuckle, and watched as she looked down and fidgeted with her paws. "Can I see your leg?" Simba asked, and watched as she remained still.

Simba carefully circled around her and stopped when he reached her hurt leg, observing that it was only dislocated and would only require a simple pop in. Simba gently rested his paw on her leg, not resetting it yet, but wanted to let her know where his paw was, and felt her jolt in fear, but remained where she was. Simba could feel her trembling under her paw, and wondered what had caused her to fear him so much.

Simba rested his other paw on to her paw, and moved his paw that was resting on her leg down to her ankle. "This is going to hurt" Simba said, wanting to give her fair warning that there wasn't a painless way to do. Simba watched as she closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, and quickly jolted her ankle back into place.

Simba watched as she fell over in pain, gritting her teeth and having a few tears roll down her face upon doing this, but to his amazement, she hardly wheezed, making him wonder if she was even capable of talking, and that's why she had been so quiet. Simba felt her pull away and began to try and walk, but like before she was still limping.

"Give it some time. It's back in its socket but it's going to hurt and be sore for awhile" Simba said, not wanting her to hurt it again. Simba watched as she laid down, inspecting her paw, but also suspiciously eyeing him, making him wonder how she still thought he was going to do something bad.

"It's alright. You're safe here. Nobody's going to hurt you" Simba said, slowly starting to approach her, and watched as she didn't make any gestures to try and move away or flee. Simba walked over to her until he was a few feet away, and laid down next to her, keeping some distance so he didn't make her feel too uncomfortable.

Simba could tell that her fur was very similar to that of Nala and Tama's, but it was hard to see from all the dirt in her fur, and wondered what had happened to her to cause her to end up so dirty and have a dislocated paw. Simba watched as she remained still while eyeing him from the corner of her eye to see if he was going to do anything, and sighed a bit.

Simba slowly stood up and began to walk away, hoping that she would follow him. Simba saw her give him a curious look, and hoped she was thinking of following him. Simba watched as she slowly stood up, and began to cautiously follow him, and gave her a smile telling her it was ok.

Simba began to lead her towards Rafiki's tree so he could make sure that she was fine, noticing that she was leaving a distance between them and understood that she probably had the idea that he was leading her into a trap, so went slow and remained passive so he didn't startle her.

Upon arriving at Rafiki's tree, Simba hopped in and looked down to see that she remained hidden in the tall grass although curious as to where he was going.

"Rafiki" Simba said, walking up to Rafiki to see that he was making something again in his bowl, and wondered what weird thing he was cooking up this time.

"Yes?" Rafiki said, putting his bowl away and walking up to Simba, wondering if he had brought him some new wound to fix.

"Hey so I found this lioness yesterday and I was able to find her again today, and she's outside. She doesn't talk but she's sorta beat up and I was wondering if you could take a look at her" Simba said, hoping he wouldn't think his choice to befriend her was wrong.

"Hmm…" Rafiki said, making his way past Simba to see this lioness for himself, when Simba chased after him and stopped him.

"I have to warn you, she's very shy and timid. Let me go down and see her, and I'll call you down when she's ready" Simba said, not wanting her to be scared by Rafiki and trying to run away. Simba quickly hopped down from the tree and over to where she last was, and saw that she was still hiding there, and he motioned for her to come out.

Simba watched as she slowly started to come out, looking all around for any signs of danger, and after seeing it was safe, slowly approached Simba.

"Hey. I brought you here because of an old friend I have. He's going to make sure you're ok. He's a friend and only wants to help. There's no need to be afraid of him, I promise" Simba said, convincing her that he was a friend. Simba saw that she remained still and continued to stare at her paws, and decided that since she didn't try and move away at all, she was probably ok with it.

"Come on down" Simba said over his shoulder, and heard Rafiki make his way over to her with a curious look on his face. Simba watched as she looked over at him with a slightly confused expression, probably expecting his friend to be a lion, and allowed him to approach her.

Simba watched as Rafiki circled her a few times, noticing her hurt leg but leaving it alone, before walking over to him.

"She is fine. Do de others know?" Rafiki asked, hoping Simba had told someone about her.

"I'm working on it" Simba said, trying to think of how to present a total stranger.

"Clean her up. En t'ink of a way before dey find out on their own" Rafiki said, looking over at the strange lioness one more time, before going back up in his tree to consult with his bowl.

Simba sighed a bit, and watched as she stared at him with a concerned look, and Simba smiled at her.

"Come on" Simba said, walking over towards a small pond so she could clean herself off. Upon arriving at the pond, Simba sat down at the bank and motioned for her to wash, and watched as she carefully entered the water, probably on the lookout for crocodiles or hippos, and wondered again why she was so timid and scared.

After simply washing her fur and removing all the dirt, she stepped out and shook herself dry, looking over to see that Simba was smiling at her.

"Well… I guess this is the moment of truth. Do you want to split ways and live your own life, or would you like to stick around and become a part of my pride?" Simba asked, wondering if she wanted to remain a rouge or decide or join a pride for a change.

Simba watched as she began to turn towards the outlands and walk away, disappointed that she wanted to go, but he wasn't going to force her to stay or anything. Simba saw her stop, and look over at him, and he slowly stood up unsure of what she was waiting for. Simba was able to look in her remarkable Purple eyes one last time, before watching her turn around and leave.

Simba felt like trying to convince her to stay, but also knew that it was her choice over whether or not she wanted to go, but still felt like she could have had a place here. Simba released a small sighed, before turning around and walking towards Pride Rock, knowing that he had probably been out too long and people would start looking for him.

 **(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)**

Simba was walking down a trail, thinking back to the lionesses he had met earlier today when he noticed that someone was approaching him in the distance. Simba looked up to see that Sarafina was making her way over to him, and chuckled a little at how she had already been looking for him.

"Hey" Simba said once Sarafina was close enough and watched as she smiled at him.

"Hey, just wanted to see where you were since you've been gone for awhile" Sarafina said, wanting to make sure he didn't run into any trouble along the way.

"Yea, I ran into this lioness today, and after helping her, she left" Simba said, and saw that Sarafina had an intrigued look on her face.

"What was her name?" Sarafina asked, wondering if it would have been anyone she would have known.

"I don't know. All I know what that she was around my age, but she's gone now" Simba said and watched as Sarafina stood there and nodded her head.

"Nala's looking for you. She was expecting you to be back and she looking for you are the waterhole" Sarafina said and watched as Simba chuckled a bit.

"Probably shouldn't keep her waiting" Simba said as he began to walk towards the waterhole, and saw Sarafina smile. Simba nuzzled into Sarafina as he passed her, and felt her due the same, before making his way off to where he expected Nala to be.

(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)

Simba was trotting down a trail he suspected Nala to be on, but for some reason, he wasn't able to find her. Simba began to venture off the trail to see if she was lurking around or off of it and spotted her walking in the distance.

Simba began to trot over her to see if she was available to enjoy a moment with him, and smiled at how she didn't know he was behind her yet. Upon getting closer, Simba slowed down and began to sneak up on her. Simba got within a few feet of her, walking quietly behind her when he saw her ear twitch and knew she could hear him.

Simba saw Nala look over her shoulder and could see a startled look in eyes, before watching her quickly punch him in the face and jump back with a snarl. Simba took a few steps back, surprised by her reaction, having only mean surprised her and not startle her. Simba watched as she followed up by getting into a defensive position to protect herself, before relaxing and looking to be confused.

"Simba!" Nala said, trotting up to him and inspecting that side of his face, not having realized that she hit him. "I'm so sorry I wasn't sure if you were som-" Nala was saying, before watching him lean forward and cut her off with a kiss. Nala was surprised by this and felt like breaking it to make sure he was fine, but when she thought about it, the idea of willingly breaking a kiss with him seemed insane.

Simba broke the kiss and looked down to see that Nala was wearing a very confused look, causing him to smile and release a small chuckle. "At least I was still able to surprise you" Simba said, glad that he was able to confuse her a bit. Simba watched as Nala inspected his cheek, running her paw over it to make sure that it was ok, before looking at him with a relieved expression.

"Where have you been all day? I've been looking all over for you" Nala said, wondering why she hadn't been able to find him and know that she had, he was acting all weird.

"Patrolling" Simba said, playfully nuzzling into her. Simba felt Nala return his nuzzle, before breaking it to talk to him. Simba followed up by leaning forward and continuing to nuzzle into her and felt her sigh.

"Can you jus-" Nala was saying, before watching him lean down and cut her off again with a kiss, making her wonder what was going on with him. Nala slowly returned the kiss, feeling as her worry started to melt away, before realizing that he was probably doing this for that exact reason, and quickly broke it.

"Stop" Nala said, not wanting him to subdue her. "You're not going to get out of this by kissing me" Nala said and watched as he seemed to be confused.

"Get out of what?" Simba asked, wondering what Nala was talking about. As far as he was concerned, he hadn't done anything that she was going to be mad about today, and was surprised to see that she was a little irritated.

"I thought you were going to come back after you were done" Nala said, remembering that he told her he would.

"I was returning when your mother ran into me, and told me to find you here" Simba said and saw that she seemed to have calmed down a bit by that statement.

"I... Sorry... I just keep forgetting that you're fine... and that if your ribs are hurting you that you'd tell me. I'm just overreacting" Nala said, remembering that she said she wouldn't do things like this again last night, but here she was today doing it again.

"You having trouble managing to handle me?" Simba said in a teasing voice, licking the side of her face and felt as she nuzzled into him.

"If I can handle Tama, I can handle anyone" Nala said with a purr, before pushing Simba over and jumping onto of him, kissing him as soon as she landed. Simba grunted a little when she did this, feeling as the pain in his ribs spiked for a few seconds, and felt Nala break the kiss and began to pull away to make sure he was ok. Simba quickly grabbed her and pulled her back down, drawing her once again into a kiss, letting her know that he was fine.

Simba felt that Nala was a little reluctant at first but slowly eased into the kiss as she always did. Simba felt Nala began to pull away, and broke the kiss, looking up at her to see she was wearing a smile.

"At least your breath is much better" Nala said with a chuckle, teasing him since his breath was awful yesterday, and watched as Simba smiled. Nala gently began to brush the fur on Simba's cheek, looking down at him with a look of pure romance and love, feeling so free and happy in that moment, almost the point where it felt like a dream.

"Nala?" Simba asked, wondering why she was just staring at him. Simba watched as Nala seemed to be broken from her trance, and leaned down to nuzzle into him.

"You're perfect" Nala said, totally relaxing and falling onto him, feeling as he held on to her to keep her from falling over. Nala pressed herself into his chest and mane, absorbing all the warmth and comfort it had to offer, and could truly say that she wasn't stressed for the first time in several days.

"Someone sounds happy" Simba said, bringing Nala back to earth. Nala was a little confused at first, wondering what he meant, before hearing how loud she was purring and felt embarrassed.

"Sorry" Nala said, not having realized that she was purring that loudly, and watched as Simba chuckled a bit.

"I don't mind" Simba said, wondering why people got embarrassed when they purred. Simba watched as Nala licked the side of his muzzle, before slowly getting off.

Once Simba was up, he felt Nala snuggle into his mane, and felt her lean into him, letting him support her weight, before closing her eyes and staying that way. Simba was a little confused about whether she was waiting for something or if she wanted to stay this way, and watched as she continued to rest into him. Simba gently nuzzled into the back of her neck, hearing her starting to purr and lean further into him, and smiled a little at her reaction.

"Want to head back?" Simba said, and felt her nod her head. Simba playfully liked the top of her head before letting her go and sitting up and felt her nuzzle into him. Simba watched as Nala slowly leaned up and gently began to kiss him, before suddenly pushing him back and taking off running towards Pride Rock. Simba smiled when she did this, and took off after her, determined to catch her before returning to Pride Rock.

 **Ight, So I know that this was a short chapter and that nothing important happened in it, but it is an extension of the previous chapter and sets up the next one. Also yes, I know this took a while lol. Anyway, I'm sure ab unch of you are wondering why I added that mysterious lionesses only to have her walk out again, well one, I felt like it, and Two, I might bring her back if I feel like it. Anyway, spoiler alert for anyone who takes the time to read this, the next chapter will be action-packed and awesome. So not much to say here, and hopefully you aren't disappointed with this relatively short and uneventful chapter, but the next one should be pretty good. I'll see y'all later. Mr_Toast Out!**


	27. Authors Note

**Alright. I get that posting an A/N is technically against the rules but other people do it so who cares. So I haven't given up on the story and I am going to continue it, I'm just busy right now. I have received several PM's regarding whether or not the story is dead, so I thought I'd just answer this all at once. I currently work as a full-time Fighterfighter and Paramedic in a somewhat busy area and do to this whole COVID-19 thing it has made writing nearly impossible. I'm either out on calls or in meetings getting updated on how to handle situations where COVID could be present and all that crap, so right now work sucks lol. To be honest I have no idea when the next chapter will be out but I can assure you that it will be coming. That's all for this time. Stay safe, and as always, hope to see you later.**

 **-Mr_Toast**


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